这一夜,谁来说相声

结合悲苦与幽默,创造出一种无奈的新喜剧类型



一九八九年九月三十日首演。借相声诙谐、幽默讽刺的手法,来探讨近年两岸关系的开放及中国人所面临之严肃问题与情结。推出后,又再次造成轰动,演出场次一再增加,国内外巡回演出场次高达七十二场。演出实况原声带问世后,再度迅速成为四白金唱带,使剧场与大众做了更紧凑的结合。许多剧中的经典名句也都早已成为日用语了,像是「谁出门不带一点零钱?」和「你们的地理已经变成历史。」剧中的段子二,描写眷村生活的「难民之旅」,以及李立群根据真实故事道出他父亲第一次千辛万苦返乡探亲的段子四「四郎探亲」也早已被誉为经典段子,结合悲苦与幽默,创造出一种无奈的新喜剧类型。
新加坡剧界将此剧誉为「将传统相声的幽默,和辛辣的社会评论及深沉的文化反省巧妙融合,为世界华语剧场创造了一种崭新的悲喜剧经验。」报导该剧在台湾与香港演出的远东经济评论(Far Eastern Economic Review),称表演工作坊的演出为「华语世界中最精彩的剧场」。

导演:赖声川

编剧:赖声川规划,与李立群共同构思完成之剧场创作

演员:
李立群 饰 严归
金士杰 饰 白坛
陈立华 饰 郑传

舞台及灯光设计:王世信
服装及造型设计:靳萍萍
音效设计:邓安宁、张小雯
舞台监督:林泽雄
舞台布景制作:希尔特舞台设计制作有限公司
排演助理暨即兴创作记录:陈立美

制作人:丁乃竺
执行制作:曾珍妮、吕永贞

世界首演:9/30/89-10/16/89 台北国立艺术馆

巡回演出:
台中、高雄、台南、中坜、基隆、新竹、新加坡、香港、洛杉矶、旧金山、纽约

演出场次:72场
观赏人次:约 100,000人

版权所有:赖声川、李立群

听金士杰、李立群的对白的确是一种享受,因为几无瑕疵,二人的肢体语言和面部表情乃来自舞台剧的长期训练,也是一般的相声演员比不上的。
——马森,"从「相声」到「戏剧」",民众日报,11/2/89

如果说相声是砖头,那么,一般人研究它是想制造一种新品种的砖头,而赖声川研究它则是要制造一种新砖头以便能让他造一栋新房子。
——郭宝昆,"相声艺术",(美国)世界日报,1/14/91

拿政治来开玩笑需要高度的幽默感、敏锐的触觉、透彻的分析和丰富的政治学识,不然只会流于泼妇骂街式的浮面漫骂,听后不留痕迹。政治笑话的素材其实俯拾皆是,只看相声主持的智慧与观察力,像【表演工作坊】拿国共国旗来比喻国共不两立,说单就国旗来看,星星和太阳便根本不能共存,看这点心思,已值回票价。
——五斗米,"香港谁来说相声",香港文汇报,7/19/90

在任何其他的地方,【表演工作坊】在柏克莱受训的导演赖声川的作品会被视为大胆的实验性。但是在台湾,有这么多小剧场的一个环境中,【表演工作坊】的戏相对变成主流性市场……《这一夜,谁来说相声?》在台北演了五个星期,这是台湾标准之下的一次破记录演出。
赖声川的《这一夜,谁来说相声?》是一出思想性极强的三人政治舞台秀,借用老式北京茶馆中的站立式喜剧形式。这出系戏极酸性的刻画出国民政府之下的台湾所做的留面子的谎言,和共产党之下的中国所做的谋杀式自我正义感之间的平行点。
《这一夜,谁来说相声?》是一海峡两岸说话高手的一次坦诚相对……台湾再一次证明它拥有华语世界中最精采的剧场。
可惜中国大陆没有办法看到《这一夜,谁来说相声》─至少不能如这出戏的制作人所期望的,在最近香港演出之后。本来一直到该团赴港演出前一星期还留了一线希望,也是因为有几位中国官员在更早的新加坡巡回看到这出戏。
这些大陆人,包括北京中央戏剧学院的代表对这出戏非常的热忱,认为【表演工作坊】的制作应该在中国大陆上得到更广阔的观众。赖先生听到这里─或许是太天真的─认为是一种邀请,让他的香港经纪人开始办这件事情。似乎看起来是很自然的一种搭配相声其实在大陆上已经是非常富有盛名的一种娱乐,因为它大众娱乐的外表可以向文化官员掩盖一些更深层的含意。根据【表演工作坊】相声演员之一的金士杰,大陆的相声艺人在传统相声技巧如方言,贯口,及口技是最高境界。这些技巧都在一种所谓「装包袱」的理论之下进行。
只有在一段相声艺的最后,演员才会「抖包袱」,或者用西洋的说法,「捶打句子」。但是就算他们有这么丰富的技巧,金说大陆的相声演员也不敢让自己「抖包袱」抖的太指向任合东西。他们必须依循着一些孤立的段子,不敢尝试像《这一夜,谁来说相声》那么有野心的完整的长句。
【表演工作坊】这出戏的特点就是演员透过一长段的段子,扮演的是同样的角色,而这些段子根据主题上或情节上的一些方式串连起来。这也并不是说有多么强烈的剧情线︰一位大陆相声演员本来要在台湾的一个夜总会做一次历史性的演出,但是无故缺席,留下他的助手和夜总会中的台湾主持人来填满那段时间。他们相互比较一下逃离大陆往台湾的成功与失败的例子。接着台湾的那位主持人报出一长串他曾经为了小学演讲比赛背过的反共口号。他不知道大陆有没有如此的比赛。
大陆角色回答,可以说有。可是这是泛中国的规模,而这比赛持续进行着,最高胜利者就可以做共产党党主席。失败者就可以长年失踪。这个比赛的名字叫做「政治斗争」两位相声演员举完一个例如再举一个例子,被斗争者是永远赢不了的。斗争者永远透过一些语言的双关技巧把他打败。据说这是北京官方认为【表演工作坊】这出戏中不准到大陆演出的两场戏中的一场。
另外有问题的段子是最后一个。是关于大陆新起的盗墓风潮。盗墓不但可以开发非常需要的新土地,同时也可以制造市场上古董的货源。
大陆角色,用经典的相声语言,描述他曾经参与过的一次盗墓经验。他们一层一层的挖,穿过珍贵的古董,城市的废墟,一堆一堆的尸体。在此剧中的象征略为重,可是表演方式中的疯狂启动力使得它仍然成立。到了最后,他们到了一间大房间,天花板上珠宝多到看起来像是满天的星星。墙壁上布满了中国最古老祖先的壁画,他们都笑着。在陆地上暴风雨正进行着,已经太遥远了,使得雷声只是远远的一种谣言声。但是渗透进来的水开始让房间里的壁画化掉。
盗墓者已经找到主墓。也没有时间彼此恭喜。在里面他们找到什么呢?当然是一个包袱。于是他们做最自然的事情「抖包袱」。可惜这次没有人笑。
——林肯‧凯,"抗拒的举动",远东经济评论,7/26/90

Anywhere else, the work of the troupe's Berkeley-trained author-director Stan Lai would be regarded as boldly experimental, But in Taiwan, where little theatre groups proliferate, the Workshop looks relatively staid and upmarket by comparison....

“Look Who's Cross-Talking” played for five weeks in Taipei, a record run by Taiwan standards....
Lai's “Look Who's Cross-Talking” is a cerebral three-man political cabaret in the stand-up comedy style of an Old Peking teahouse. The play acidly etches the parallels between the face-saving hypocracies of Nationalist Taiwan and the murderous righteousness of communist China... “Look Who's Cross-Talking” is a frank confrontation of two raucous rap-masters from opposite sides of the strait.... Taiwan has once again proved that it boasts the most Chinese-speaking world today....
Mainland China, though, will not get to see “Look Who's Cross-Talking” ─ at least not on the heels of the show's Hong Kong engagement as hoped by its promoters.
That hope, which remained alive right up to the week before the troupe left for Hong Kong was based on the reaction of a few mainland Chinese officials who saw the show on its earlier tour to Singapore. The Chinese, including representatives of the Central Drama Academy in Peking, enthused that the Performance Workshop production deserved a wider audience on the mainland. Lai heard this ─ perhaps naively ─ as an invitation and put his Hong Kong theatrical agent on the case. It seemed, after all, a natural fit.
Xiang sheng is already vastly popular on the mainland, where its mass-entertainment auspices shield it from the cruder ministrations of the cultural commissars. According to Chin Shih-chieh, one of the Performance Workshop xiang sheng players, mainland artists are unrivalled at such traditional xiang sheng techniques as dialects, rapid-fire patter and vocal sound effects. These devices all come under the rubric of "stuffing the bundle" - xiang sheng parlance for the build-up of a routine.
Only at the end of the skit do they "pop the bundle," or deliver the punch-line. For all their technical skills, Chin says, mainland xiang sheng artists cannot allow themselves to "pop the bundle" too pointedly. And they must stick to isolated vignettes, rather than attempting anything so ambitious as a full-length xiang sheng play such as “Look Who's Cross-Talking”.
The distinctive feature of the Performance Workshop show is that the actors remain in the same roles over the course of several successive scenes that are thematically related and strung together by a plot of sorts. Not that there is much to the story line: a mainland comedian, scheduled to make a precedent-setting appearance in a Taiwan bistro, fails to show up, leaving his flunky and the nightclub's Taiwanese master of ceremonies to fill the time.
They compare notes about attempts - successful or abortive - to flee the mainland for Taiwan. Then the Taiwanese spiels off a stream of Red-baiting slogans that he memorized for his grade school elocution contests. Does the mainland have any such contests, he wonders.
Well, yes, the mainlander replies. But it is pan-Chinese in scope and the contest is perpetually ongoing. Winners get to be communist party chairman. Losers disappear for years. The contest is called "political struggle."
The xiangsheng duo plays at example after example in which the "struggle victim" never wins. The attacker always bests him with vitriolic doublespeak. This was reportedly one of the two scenes the Peking authorities found too sensitive to allow the Performance Workshop production into the mainland.
The other objectionable scene was the last one, which was all about the supposed mainland vogue for grave-robbing. Not only does this clear away needed lands, but it also provides a steady store of saleable antiquities.
The mainlander, in classic xiang sheng patter, describes a grave-robbing expedition he once joined. Layer after layer, they probed - through precious artifacts, ruined cities, stacked cadavers. The symbolism gets a bit heavy-handed, but the manic momentum of the recital carries it off. At last, they come to a chamber so jewel-encrusted that it seems hung with stars.
The walls are covered with frescoes of the most ancient Chinese ancestors. They are all smiling. The rainstorm raging above ground is so far off that the thunder is only a distant rumour. But water trickling into the chamber begins to melt the frescoes.
The grave robbers locate the master tomb. No time to stand on ceremony. Inside, what should they find but a bundle? So they do what comes naturally and "pop the bundle." Except this time nobody laughs.
——Lincoln Kaye, "Acts of Defiance," Far Eastern Economic Review, 7/26/90

 
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