Lin Zhaohua's Coriolanus Debuts at the EIF

　　The Beijing People's Art Theatre has made its debut¹ at the Edinburgh International Festival.

 

　　It's also the European premiere of Chinese director Lin Zhaohua's version of Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus.

 

　　CRI's UK correspondent Tu Yun has more.

 

　　Shakespeare and heavy metal rock?

 

　　That sounds a bit odd.

 

　　But that's what Chinese director Lin Zhaohua did in 2007 when he first introduced the Tragedy of Coriolanus to the Beijing People's Art Theatre with two rock bands, Miserable² Faith and Suffocated³.

 

　　"Rock music is more powerful in demonstrating confrontation⁴."

 

　　And six years later, it hits the stage of the Edinburgh International Festival.

 

　　All in Mandarin⁵ Chinese; all in plain modern colloquial⁶ language.

 

　　"I think it's important for people in the United Kingdom to experience very different interpretations⁸ of the works of William Shakespeare."

 

　　Jonathan Mills is the director of the festival.

 

　　"Shakespeare is of course a British playwright⁹. But he's a world figure. And he's open therefore to interpretation⁷ across many different genres¹⁰ of art, and across many different cultures."

 

　　Set in Republican Rome, Coriolanus describes the predicament faced by a victorious¹¹ military commander after he becomes a policymaker.

 

　　It sheds light on the contradiction between the general public and those with ruling power.

 

　　That's the most attractive part to the 77-year old Chinese director.

 

　　"What I value most is the relationship between the ordinary people and the ruling group. That's it. Nothing more. The contradiction is always there. That's the case in China, in Britain, and all over the world."

 

　　That's also what's impressed Mills most.

 

　　"The interpretation from Lin Zhaohua, I think he's making a strong reference not only to a very particular form of drama from the late 16th, early 17th century. But he's also perhaps making a statement, a symbol of the emergence¹² of the People's Republic of China - how these acts of selflessness and heroism¹³ built a new nation and the challenges. And I read it as a contemporary metaphor¹⁴ for China."

 

　　Mills has been in contact with Lin Zhaohua for years, hoping the Chinese director could bring his production to Edinburgh.

 

　　But it's not until this year that Mills successfully incorporated Lin's work into the program.

 

　　Pu Cunxin, the leading actor of the play, who's also the deputy president of the Beijing People's Art Theatre, explains.

 

　　"The budget is one of the problems. We've got an eighty-strong cast, which could be a big burden for any organizer. This time, the organizers have spent heavily on this, owing a lot to the sponsor. Otherwise, only ticket sales can barely cover it."

 

　　The production is supported by China's Ministry¹⁵ of Culture and the KT Wong Foundation.

 

　　Tickets for the two-day performance were sold out days before it premiered.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Tu Yun in Edinburgh.

1 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

2 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

3 suffocated   

（使某人）窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 )； （将某人）闷死； 让人感觉闷热； 憋气

参考例句：

• Many dogs have suffocated in hot cars. 许多狗在热烘烘的汽车里给闷死了。
• I nearly suffocated when the pipe of my breathing apparatus came adrift. 呼吸器上的管子脱落时，我差点给憋死。

4 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

5 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

6 colloquial   

adj.口语的，会话的

参考例句：

• It's hard to understand the colloquial idioms of a foreign language.外语里的口头习语很难懂。
• They have little acquaintance with colloquial English. 他们对英语会话几乎一窍不通。

7 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

8 interpretations   

n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解

参考例句：

• This passage is open to a variety of interpretations. 这篇文章可以有各种不同的解释。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The involved and abstruse passage makes several interpretations possible. 这段艰涩的文字可以作出好几种解释。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

10 genres   

（文学、艺术等的）类型，体裁，风格( genre的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
• But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆，古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

11 victorious   

adj.胜利的，得胜的

参考例句：

• We are certain to be victorious.我们定会胜利。
• The victorious army returned in triumph.获胜的部队凯旋而归。

12 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

13 heroism   

n.大无畏精神，英勇

参考例句：

• He received a medal for his heroism.他由于英勇而获得一枚奖章。
• Stories of his heroism resounded through the country.他的英雄故事传遍全国。

14 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

15 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。