瑪麗‧辛默曼的劇場美學與神話敘事：從《變形記》到《白蛇》

The Theatrical and Narrative Aesthetics of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses and The White Snake

美國劇場導演兼劇作家瑪麗．辛默曼（Mary Zimmerman 1960－）於一九八○年代末開始創作，並以改編羅馬詩人奧維德的神話《變形記》（Metamorphoses）獲得二○○二年東尼獎最佳導演。辛默曼的作品遊走於實驗性與商業主流之間，多取材自神話，同時著力謳歌愛的救贖力量。她的敘事抒情詩意，如寓言般簡潔，場面調度上則通常近乎空台，以演員身體與說書人的文字敘述來召喚觀眾想像。本文聚焦於兩部辛默曼的作品：她的成名代表作《變形記》（1998）以及《白蛇》（2012），分別改編自希臘羅馬神話與中國神話。本文試圖從導演與編劇兩個角度，分析辛默曼如何在劇場中創造魔幻，也探究她如何將古老神話賦予當代意義。論文第一部分綜論辛默曼的劇場美學，第二部分將以《變形記》與《白蛇》為例，探討其改編神話的敘事策略。

Contemporary American theatre director and playwright Mary Zimmerman began her career in the late 1980s and won a 2002 Tony award for Best Direction for her adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Her works are embraced by both experimental and mainstream theatre goers. Derived mostly from mythology, her plays emphasize the redemptive power of love, and her narrative is allegorical and poetic. She often engages with an empty space, relying on the narrator's description, performer's body, and the audience's imagination to complete the image. This paper focuses on two of Zimmerman's works: Metamorphoses (1998), and The White Snake (2012), adapted from Roman and Chinese mythology respectively. Treating her as both a director and a playwright, the study attempts to analyze how Zimmerman creates magic in theatre and how she gives contemporary meanings to the old tales. The first part of the paper discusses her theatrical aesthetics. The second part explores her narrative strategy in her adaptations of Metamorphoses and The White Snake.