等待救贖或自我救贖──當代傳奇劇場《等待果陀》的文化轉譯

Instant Redemption or Self-redemption: Contemporary Legend Theater's Adaptation of Waiting for Godot

貝克特在1952年寫下的《等待果陀》一劇延續了存在主義對於人類生存意義的探問，成為最具代表性的荒謬戲劇之一。1966年《劇場》雜誌社在臺北耕莘文教院的演出是《等待果陀》在臺灣的首演，在此之後的數十年間，臺灣劇場陸續以不同表演形式演繹該劇；其中2005年的「當代傳奇劇場」嘗試以京劇演出《等待果陀》一劇，無論在表現方式、敘事手法與主題情旨的呈現上，與傳統京劇的表演規範、甚至當代戲曲的發展內涵，都有著從形式以至內容上的巨大差異。但該齣戲卻也為當代戲曲開拓了另一條極為特殊的途徑，同時示範了東方傳統戲曲與西方荒謬劇進行對話的可能性。而原劇中所提出的上帝已死的信仰課題，來到該劇本裡則改為對於「立地成佛」的提問。擺盪在京劇與話劇、敘事與反敘事、西方文本與東方語境，「當代傳奇劇場」透過藝術形式上的各種矛盾與差異營造出劇場裡的荒謬性，也讓觀眾藉著形式上的陌生感貼近了戲劇所欲呈現的荒謬主題。本文將討論傳統戲曲對於《等待果陀》的改編手法，包括藝術形式的嘗試與破壞，以及中西思想的對話與融合，並將之作為理解存在主義以至荒謬戲劇在臺灣劇場之接受情況的範例之一。

Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, written in 1952, delves into the meaning of life from the existential perspective, and has become a figurehead of the theater of the absurd. In 2005, Contemporary Legend Theater staged a Beijing opera adaptation of Waiting for Godot, without the traditional music, but keeping the traditional vocal style, while using the lyric structure of an opera to express the monotony which played a key role in the original. As for the theme of “God is dead” in the original, it has been replaced with the question of instant redemption (literally “to become a Buddha on the spot”). Sitting on the fence between Beijing opera and a modern play, narrative and non-narrative, as well as the original script and an Eastern context, Contemporary Legend Theater made use of a variety of contradictions and discrepancies existing in unfamiliar artistic forms to convey the idea of absurdity. In this paper, I discuss the adaptations which Contemporary Legend Theater have made to Waiting for Godot, including the art forms, the amalgamation of Eastern and Western ideas, the insights it provides into existentialism and the future prospects of the theater of the absurd in Taiwan.