四川好女人

1. 四川好女人

2. Bertolt Brecht • "Brecht" redirects here. For other uses see Brecht (disambiguation).

3. Bertolt Brecht • Bertolt Brecht (born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. • A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht's achievement is equally significant in dramaturgy and in theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.

4. Bertolt Brecht • From his late twenties Brecht remained a life-long committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', synthesized and extended the experiments of Piscator and Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism. • Brecht's modernist concern with drama-as-a-medium led to his refinement of the 'epic form' of the drama (which constitutes that medium's rendering of 'autonomization' or the 'non-organic work of art'—related in kind to the strategy of divergent chapters in Joyce's novel Ulysses, to Eisenstein's evolution of a constructivist 'montage' in the cinema, and to Picasso's introduction of cubist 'collage' in the visual arts).

5. Bertolt Brecht • In contrast to many other avant-garde approaches, however, Brecht had no desire to destroy art as an institution; rather, he hoped to 're-function' the apparatus of theatrical production to a new social use. • In this regard he was a vital participant in the aesthetic debates of his era—particularly over the 'high art / popular culture' dichotomy—vying with the likes of Adorno, Lukács, Bloch, and developing a close friendship with Benjamin.

6. Bertolt Brecht • Brechtian theatre articulated popular themes and forms with avant-garde formal experimentation to create a modernist realism that stood in sharp contrast both to its psychological and socialist varieties. • "Brecht's work is the most important and original in European drama since Ibsen and Strindberg," Raymond Williams argues, while Peter Bürger insists that he is "the most important materialist writer of our time."

7. Bertolt Brecht • As Jameson among others has stressed, "Brecht is also ‘Brecht’"—collective and collaborative working methods were inherent to his approach. • This 'Brecht' was a collective subject that "certainly seemed to have a distinctive style (the one we now call 'Brechtian') but was no longer personal in the bourgeois or individualistic sense."

8. Bertolt Brecht • During the course of his career, Brecht sustained many long-lasting creative relationships with other writers, composers, scenographers, directors, dramaturgs and actors; the list includes: Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Ruth Berlau, Slatan Dudow, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Caspar Neher, Teo Otto, Karl von Appen, Ernst Busch, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Therese Giehse, Angelika Hurwicz, and Helene Weigel herself.

9. Bertolt Brecht • This is "theatre as collective experiment as something radically different from theatre as expression or as experience." • There are few areas of modern theatrical culture that have not felt the impact or influence of Brecht's ideas and practices; dramatists and directors in whom one may trace a clear Brechtian legacy include: Dario Fo, Augusto Boal, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Pina Bausch, Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill.

10. Bertolt Brecht • In addition to the theatre, Brechtian theories and techniques have exerted considerable sway over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice; Brecht's influence may be detected in the films of Jean-Luc Godard, Lindsay Anderson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Ritwik Ghatak, Lars von Trier, Jan Bucquoy and Hal Hartley.

11. Bertolt Brecht • Statue of Brecht outside the Berliner Ensemble's theatre in Berlin

12. 生平 • 尤金‧貝爾扥爾特‧弗里德里希‧布萊希特（ＥＵＧＥＮ　ＢＥＲＴＨＯＬＤ　ＦＲＩＥＤＲＩＣＨ　ＢＲＥＣＨＴ），生於１８９８年２月１０日，巴伐利亞屬奧古斯堡。 • 小時後的布萊希特是個體弱的孩子，由於先天的心臟疾病，他曾被送到療養院修養。 • １０歲成為奧格斯堡皇家巴伐利亞高級中學的學生，接受拉丁和人文科學的教育，後來還念過尼采的思想。在學校期間他便開始寫作，成為學生雜誌「收穫」的發行兼編輯。 • １６歲開始為地方報紙寫文章，並創作了第一個劇本「聖經」。 • １８歲時由於不支持在戰爭時期為祖國犧牲，幾乎被學校開除。 • １９歲中學畢業，因為心臟問題而沒有服兵役。

13. 生平 • １９１７年，他到慕尼黑的路德維希‧馬克西米立克大學繼續唸醫學。 • 這期間他參加了阿爾圖‧庫切爾的戲劇研究班。 • 但他因為不喜歡和同班同學的相處模式，而經常翹課跑回家。 • 這期間開始創作劇本「巴爾」（Ｂａａｌ）。 • 第一次世界大戰期間，布萊希特雖然曾受命到軍醫院當衛生兵，但很快的就結束了，因為他公開表態對戰爭不抱信心。

14. 生平 • 在他還未成為幕尼黑的戲劇家之前，他很快的在一家報社「人民意志報」找到寫劇評的工作。 • １９２０年他二度到柏林參加Ｍａｘ　Ｒｅｉｎｈａｒｄｔ的排練課和上其他的導演課。 • １９２２年「夜半鼓聲」（Ｔｒｏｍｍｅｌｎ　ｉｎ　ｄｅｒ　Ｎａｃｈｔ）在慕尼黑和柏林的劇院上演，因此獲得有名的克萊斯特最佳年輕劇作家獎。 • １９２３年「都市叢林」和「巴爾」上演。

15. 生平 • 布萊希特的劇作在很多不同的方面都深深的影響著當代和後代的人們。 • 他研究過中國、日本、和印度戲劇，特別是莎士比亞和伊麗莎白女皇時期的戲劇，並吸收了希臘悲劇的元素。 • 他從德國劇作家得到靈感，也喜愛巴伐利亞的民間戲劇。 • 布萊希特有傑出的能力，把這些表面上不相通的戲劇元素結合，轉變成他自己的作品。 • 劇作包括「屠宰場中的聖女貞德」、「四川好人」，「勇氣媽媽和她的孩子」、「伽利略的一生」、「潘第拉先生和他的男僕馬狄」、「阿吐羅魏發跡記」。

16. 生平 • 第二次世界大戰後，美國開始了對共產黨人的「瘋狂破壞」。 • 好萊塢要肅清所謂受到共產主義思想侵蝕的作家和藝術家。有一個德國流亡者曾告發過布萊希特，自那時起他就受到聯邦調查局的監視。 • １９４７年十月，布萊希特收到華盛頓「非美活動調查委員會」傳訊的通知。雖然不是美國共產黨的一員，偵訊結果也判定布萊希特無罪，審訊結束後的第二天他就離開美國到瑞士去。 • １９５０年長期無國籍的布萊希特和海倫娜終於拿到奧地利護照。

17. 生平 • 布萊希特早期的作品曾實驗過達達主義和表現主義，但很快的就發展出一套屬於他自己獨特風格的觀點。 • 他厭惡亞里士多德戲劇方法，那讓觀眾和劇中的英雄人物產生共鳴進而同情，他認為這種恐怖的情感和憐憫導致觀眾情緒沉淪而無法思考。 • １９５４年布萊希特獲頒國際絲大林和平獎。 • １９５６年８月１４日，當他在研究山謬‧貝克特的『等待果陀』時，因心臟病發而過世。 • 他交代需要放一支短劍在他胸前，並且用鐵製棺材以避免他的屍體佈滿蟲子。　

18. 作品中的思想 • 布雷希特研讀衛禮賢（Ｒｉｃｈａｒｄ　Ｗｉｌｈｅｌｍ）的中國哲學之著，如老莊哲學及易經，深受道家思想的影響。 • 在早期著作如「在密集的城市裏」引用老子以柔克剛的思想，也對道德經作了討論。 • 值得一提的是，他在丹麥流亡期間完成譬喻劇《四川好人》及《勇氣媽媽和他的孩子們》劇本，皆引用莊子所謂的人或物若為世所用，難逃惡運，而若不為世所用，才能生存的道理，亦即；好人難容於世，而壞人左右逢源。

19. 作品中的思想 • 布雷希特藉著書中角色的不幸遭遇和中國古代的寓言來影射社會的弊病與社會裏矛盾的象，但他認為人還是可以當好人，而又同時不會被社會擊敗，但只有當這個社會／世界可以改變的時候，這些觀點布雷希特都試著在許多劇本及散文內呈現。 • 他１９３５年在莫斯科認識了梅蘭芳的京劇，了解到中國京劇表演藝術之「陌生化效果」（Ｖｅｒｆｒｅｍｄｕｎｇｓｅｆｆｅｋｔ），影響他在戲劇方面的創新。

20. 作品中的思想 • 在流亡期間，他研讀了艾菲爾．福克（Ａｌｆｒｅｄ　Ｆｏｒｋｅ）在１９２２年德譯本「社會倫理家墨子及其弟子之哲學論述」，對中國哲學思想更加喜愛。 • 他也重視孔子對禮節的看法，認為孔子是人類最成功的老師。 • 在他給作家卡爾．克洛斯（Ｋａｒｌ　Ｋｒａｕｓ）的一封信中以及他的著作「寫真理的五種困難」都提到孔子強調「正名」之重要性。

21. 作品中的思想 • 布雷希特認為面對當時法西斯主義之濫權，對一些不正義的事，應有適當的名稱指涉，名不正則言不順。布雷希特在流亡期間假借墨子、易經之名寫了「成語錄」：「墨翟．變易之書」（Ｍｅ－ｔｉ．Ｂｕｃｈ　ｄｅｒ　Ｗｅｎｄｕｎｇｅｎ）。 • 全書是以對話方式、格言、比擬寫成的哲理，辯證的著作，文中除了墨家的思想（辯、利的觀念、三表法），也議論儒家（孔子的正名、對家庭制度的觀念）及道家（如揚朱）之思想。

22. 作品中的思想 • 布雷希特引借中國哲學思想，墨子之部份觀念，以馬克思辯證法，對當時社會政治採批判的態度。 • 書名（變易之書）暗指「易經」。他運用「易經」之陰陽對立原理，八卦及象之占卜決定人的行為，呈現個人對社會的自覺性，且以馬克思的唯物辯證史觀對社會主義之建立有所闡述。

23. 作品中的思想 • 他認為，有變易，社會、世界才能有改變，而個人的態度應以積極、干涉來取代消極、被動。布雷希特改編元劇李行道的「灰闌記」寫成「高加索灰闌記」（Ｄｅｒ　Ｋａｕｋａｓｉｓｃｈｅ　Ｋｒｅｉｄｅｋｒｅｉｓ），基於馬克斯經濟決定論闡述養育重於生育，民生問題先於倫理道德的觀念。 • 布雷希特對中國的政治並不感興趣，而是以中國人物、背景、哲理當作戲劇，文學藝術創作的手段、策略，藉以體現出尖銳的思考邏輯及教誨的目的。

24. 與疏離效果的關係 • 布氏認為劇場是一種工具，是為政治目的服務的，對布雷希特而言，舞臺上的幻覺所造成的觀眾情感投入是最大的阻礙，所以新型態的劇場必須讓觀眾保持「置身事外」的冷靜，站在較高的心理位置俯瞰全局，並從而窺見作者所欲傳達的政治議題，而讓觀眾保持冷靜，靠的就是「疏離效果」。 • 敘事詩劇場創造疏離效果的方法大致上可以將之分成兩個象度來討論：

25. 與疏離效果的關係 • 在舞臺設計方面，敘事詩劇場很少採用寫實的舞臺，這是為了告訴觀眾這是一個「我們（演員）正在『敘述』的『故事』」，以避免觀眾把他們對劇中人產生「感同身受」的同情與憐憫，以至妨礙「正確的」判斷。 • 同時，在當時鏡框式舞臺獨領風騷的年代裡（註：鏡框式舞臺隔絕掉觀眾的視線，用各種幕擋住燈具與，用以造成「擬真的幻覺」），敘事詩劇場強調劇場所有燈、音設備的外露，這也是為了提醒觀眾：他們正坐在一個「劇場」裡面，看著台上的「演出」，而故事是假的，唯一的「真理」是劇作家所欲傳達的政治理念。

26. 與疏離效果的關係 • 然而這些在劇場硬體面的革新如果沒有裝載軟體（劇本寫作）上的變化，這種革新的效果將值得懷疑。 • 在劇本裡，敘事詩劇場至少有五大特色： • 一、 空間的異化：布氏作品絕大多數描寫的對象不是德國，甚至遠至亞洲。如《高加索灰闌記》寫的是高加索的故事，《四川好女人》則以中國四川市（布雷希特誤以四川為市）為背景。

27. 與疏離效果的關係 • 二、 時間的異化：布雷希特的作品中，時間通常是模糊的，並不指涉某一特定的歷史時間，就好像童話一般，用「很久很久以前．．．．　」作為開頭。　 • 其《勇氣媽媽和她的子女們》把時間設在三十年戰爭期間算是比較特殊的例子。 • 三、 人物的異化：故事中的人物通常是某個概念的化身，並且在許多時候會加以模糊化。 • 布氏似乎很喜歡「戲中戲結構」或其變形。例如《措施》裡的「角色扮演」、《高加索灰闌記》裡藉由「說故事」帶出戲中戲。

28. 與疏離效果的關係 • 四、 「敘事者」的運用：這也許是布雷希特劇作裡的最大特色之一。 • 在劇中，往往會有一個與主要事件並無關連的人物對觀眾直接說話（例如《高加索灰闌記》裡的「說書人」，這也許和京劇中的「檢場」有關。 • 另外，劇中某些角色也可以直接和觀眾說話（如《四川好女人》裡的「老王」，或許這又和京劇裡的「自報家門」相關。

29. 與疏離效果的關係 • 五、 　歌舞的運用：在布雷希特的劇本裡，絕大多數都有歌舞的部份，這些歌舞的部份往往用來交代背景的遷移，而更重要的功能，則是說出作者真正想說的話。 • 以上五點在劇本上的特色在在說明了布氏對於抽離觀眾的情感所做的努力，加上劇場性的因素，疏離效果便因而成立了。

31. The Good Woman of Setzuan • The Good Woman of Setzuan, is a play by Bertolt Brecht. • It was written between 1939 and 1941, but completed in 1943 while the author was living in temporary political exile in The United States, and was first performed (in 1943) at the Schauspielhaus Zürich in Switzerland with a musical score and songs by Swiss composer Huldreich Georg Früh.

32. The Good Woman of Setzuan • Today, Paul Dessau's composition of the songs from 1947-48 is far more well-known than Früh's. Dessau's music was also authorized by Brecht. • This play, along with many of the author's others in this period, are considered examples of epic theatre, and were not written to be staged according to the traditional practices and assumptions of the "realistic" theatre.

33. Title and theme • In English this play is often referred to as The Good Woman of Szechzwan, as it appears in the authoritative translation of the text prepared by pre-eminent Brecht scholar Eric Bentley, in which he chooses to suggest an exclusively feminine title character. • In the original German, however, the play is titled "Der gute Mensch von Sezuan", and so the most linguistically accurate and specific title would be The Good Person of Sezuan. • Most subsequent translations (such as that of John Willet) use the unisex Person in the title.

34. Title and theme • Additional confusion has come from the lack of uniformity in the spelling of the setting: Sezuan, Setzuan, Szechwan, Szechuan have all been used. • Today, the proper spelling for the Chinese province would be the Pinyin variant Sichuan, and some translations have been updated to reflect that. • However, Brecht was never interested in anthropological accuracy in his choice of setting, but rather in the universal application of the epic setting.

35. Title and theme • This confusion of titling points to the central problem of the play which follows a young woman, a prostitute named Shen Te, as she struggles to lead a life that is "good" (according to the terms of the morality that is taught by the gods, and to which lip service is paid by her fellow citizens of Setzuan) without allowing herself to be abused and trod upon by those who would accept, and more often than not, abuse her goodness.

36. Title and theme • Her neighbors and even her friends prove so brutal in the filling of their bellies that in order to protect herself, she invents an alter ego: a male cousin named Shui Ta, who is cold and stern, a protector of Shen Te's interests. • Thus the difficult theme of qualitative "goodness" (which seemed so simple and obvious in the title of the play) is rendered unstable by application to both genders, as Shen Te realizes she must operate under the guise of both in order to live a good life.

37. Title and theme • Brecht's strong belief in Marxist doctrine is made evident through the play as he attempts to redefine contemporary morality and altruism in strong economic terms. • Absolute Altruism, i.e. a moral code of unconditional giving with no return, is put in direct conflict with Shen Teh's capitalist society of exploitation, the implication being that economic systems dictate morality.

38. Title and theme • Brecht further underlines the sexual undertones of capitalism by having the former prostitute Shen Teh adopt a male alter-ego, a phallic personality capable of exerting influence and taking what he needs.

39. Title and theme • According to Brecht, under such a society, it is impossible to give without also taking. The implied solution, for which Brecht went before the House Committee on Un-American Activities is a marxist/communist society in which, through nationalization of private property and interdependence, all altruism goes to serve both the whole and the individual.

40. Plot summary • The play opens with Wang, a water carrier, explaining to the audience that he is on the city outskirts awaiting the foretold appearance of several important gods. • Soon the gods arrive and ask Wang to find them shelter for the night. • They are tired, having traveled far and wide in search of good people who still live according to the principles that they, the gods, have handed down.

41. Plot summary • Instead they have found only greed, evil, dishonesty, and selfishness. • The same turns out to be true in Szechuan: no one will take them in, no one has the time or means to care for others - no one except the poor young Shen Te, whose pure inherent charity cannot allow her to turn away anyone in need.

42. Plot summary • Shen Te is rewarded for her hospitality, as the gods take it as a sure sign of goodness. • They give her money and she buys a humble tobacco shop which they intend as both gift and test: will Shen Te be able to maintain her goodness with these newfound means, however slight they may be? • If she succeeds, the gods' confidence in humanity would be restored. Though at first, Shen Te seems to live up the gods' expectations, her generosity quickly turns her small shop into a messy, overcrowded poorhouse which attracts crime and police supervision.

43. Plot summary • In a sense, Shen Te quickly fails the test, as she is forced to introduce the invented cousin Shui Ta as overseer and protector of her interests. • Shen Te dons a costume of male clothing, a mask, and a forceful voice to take on the role of Shui Ta. • Shui Ta arrives at the shop, coldly explains that his cousin has gone out of town on a short trip, curtly turns out the hangers-on, and quickly restores order to the shop.

44. Plot summary • At first, Shui Ta only appears when Shen Te is in a particularly desperate situation, but as the action of the play develops, Shen Te becomes unable to keep up with the demands made on her and is overwhelmed by the promises she makes to others--therefore she is compelled to call on her cousin's services for longer periods until at last her true persona seems to be consumed by the severity of her cousin's.

45. Plot summary • Where Shen Te is soft, compassionate and vulnerable, Shui Ta is unemotional and pragmatic, even vicious; it seems that only Shui Ta is made to survive in the world in which they live. In what seems no time at all, he has built her humble shop into a full scale tobacco factory with many employees.

46. Plot summary • Eventually one of the employees hears Shen Te crying, but when he enters only Shui Ta is present. • He demands to know what he has done with Shen Te, and when he cannot prove where she is, he is taken to court on the charge of having hidden or possibly murdered his cousin. • The townspeople also discover a bundle of Shen Te's clothing under Shui Ta's desk, which makes them even more suspicious.

47. Plot summary • During the process of her trial, the gods appear in the robes of the judges, and Shui Ta says that he will make a confession if the room is cleared except for the judges. • When the townspeople have gone, she reveals herself to the gods, who are confronted by the dilemma that their seemingly arbitrary divine behavior has caused: they have created impossible circumstances for those who wish to live "good" lives and yet refuse to intervene directly to protect their followers from the vulnerability that this "goodness" engenders.

48. Plot summary • At the end, following a hasty and ironic (though quite literal) deus ex machina, the narrator throws the responsibility of finding a solution to the play's problem onto the shoulders of the audience. • It is for the spectator to figure out how a good person can possibly come to a good end in a world that, in essence, is not good.

49. Plot summary • The play relies on the dialectic possibilities of this problem, and on the assumption that the spectator will be moved to see that the current structure of society must be changed in order to resolve the problem.

50. The Cast of The Good Person of Setzuan. The show runs from March 14 to 17 in the New Workshop Theater.