Pre-modern meets Post-modern in Environmental

論文發表人：汪俊彥 (加州大學洛杉磯分校 戲劇批判理論研究所博士班 )

 

http://www.athe.org/

 

 　一九八零年代，「環境劇場」的理論與實踐由理查謝喜納介紹到了台灣。如 同一位台灣戲劇學者所述，一九八零年代的台灣所受的歐美戲劇影響可以視為中國戲劇在二十世紀以來的第二次的西潮。這篇論文起源於以下的問題意識：我們應該如何詮釋這場二次西潮在中國現代戲劇的影響？這二度西潮是否重複了第一次西潮所造成的中國與「西方」劇場的權力傾斜？

　從二次西潮中的兩齣劇場表演出發，一則可以視為「後現代」表演，另一則則可名為「前現代」的演出，兩者均或多或少受到理查謝喜納的理論與實踐影響而誕生，本篇論文將透過以上兩個例子，以理查謝喜納在台灣的理論與實踐情形，觀察台灣現代戲劇的二度西潮。

為了理解二度西潮的現象，本篇論文先初步檢視中國戲劇的第一次西潮。第一次西潮，簡單說，「發明」了中國現代戲劇，掌握了戲劇的現代性，並且巨大地改變了中國傳統戲曲。

　在簡單對第一次西潮的歷史痕跡回顧之後，論文指出在二次西潮巨麾之下，由理查謝喜那的學生鍾明德，一位在台灣任教同時進行戲劇實踐者，所倡導的「後現代」戲劇，在面對西方戲劇的霸權時，並沒有提供一種「去中心式」的後現代結構觀。也就是說，如果後現代主義提供了一種對中心與霸權的解構態度，本篇論文想要問，並且試圖解決的是：在西方霸權的既存結構下，究竟有沒有所謂普遍性的「後現代」的劇場？我們又如何能透過環境劇場，連結「前現代」的文化資源，一種本文認為具有「本土性」的特質，來「重建」中國的現代劇場？

 

　Around the middle of the 1980s, the notion of environmental theatre as theorized and practiced by Richard Schechner was introduced to Taiwan. As one theatre scholar in Taiwan remarked, the influence of theatrical practices from European and American contexts in Taiwan in the 1980s can be regarded as the second "Western Wave" (Xi-Chao) in the history of Chinese theatre in the twentieth century.     This paper arose from the question: How should we interpret this second Western Wave in the modern history of Chinese theatre? Does it repeat the pattern of the first wave, which evokes images of unbalanced power relations between China and "the West?"

　Using two examples of "post-modern" and "pre-modern" performances in the second Wave, both of which were influenced by Richard Schechner and the theory of environmental theatre, this paper tries to analyze the second wave of Western theatre and Richard Schechner's environmental theatre in theory and practice in Taiwan.

　In order to understand how the second Western wave influenced modern Chinese theatre, we first need to examine the first wave of Western Chinese theatre.  The first Western wave, to some extent, "invented" Chinese modern theatre, manipulated ideas of theatrical modernity and changed the traditional Chinese music drama in significant ways. 

　After a brief discussion of the historical legacy of the first Western wave, I will indicate that under the rubric of the second "Western Wave," the acclaimed "post-modernist" environmental theatre as advocated by theatre activist and scholar Chung Mingde ,who was a student of Schechner at NYU, might not have succeeded in providing a "de-centered" theatre in terms of the Western dominance of theory.

　In other words, if the contribution of post-modernism has helped to deconstruct the norm of the center, I would like to raise the question of whether a purely "post-modernist" performance existed, in terms of theory and practice in environmental performances under the second Wave. How could we remake a Chinese modern theatre in the form of environmental theatre with reference to pre-modern performances, which I argue embodies a kind of locality?