Text/Liu Yan
The human perspective after science fiction is unique in modern and contemporary literature. Adapting science fiction into a musical, is it transcendence or dissolution?
The musical Bouquet for Alginon (hereinafter referred to as "Bouquet") is adapted from the novel of the same name, and the novel "Bouquet" is the winner of both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. The musical "Bouquet of Flowers", through the unique artistic presentation of the musical, sings the truth, goodness and beauty in the song, and carries the humanity in science fiction with the charm of music.
How does the cross-border between science fiction and musical theater make the two achieve a transformation in terms of artistic presentation, story construction, and character image shaping?
A crossover fusion of science fiction and musicals
In the late 1950s, Daniel Case published his first short debut, Bouquet of Flowers, which was immediately recognized by the Hugo Award, and in 1966, after expanding it to a long story, he won the Nebula of the Year Award. Two awards, two awards in the global science fiction world, "Bouquet" has a supreme glory.
The protagonist of the novel, Charlie Gordon, is a young man with a congenital mental disorder, and his greatest desire is to become as "smart" as everyone else. In his daily life as a bakery worker, he was often met with cold-eyed and unequal treatment from his peers. By chance, he was chosen to participate in an experiment that could improve intelligence, performing the same brain surgery as a guinea pig named "Algenon".
After the operation, both Charlie and Algino's intelligence improved. After "smart", Charlie has a new trouble, far beyond the normal human intelligence of him, wisdom seems to separate him and all the people he loves, and life returns from "light" to "darkness".
Alginon is Charlie's confirmation. Charlie's physical and psychological changes are based on imagining the future science and drawing a panorama of human nature, so as to discuss the meaning of love, happiness, science, human nature, self, and the eternity of life.
The "bouquet" is dedicated to both Algion and Charlie; both to the past and the future.
Science fiction is based on scientific fiction.
How bizarre and bizarre the scene envisioned in the novel is, how incomprehensible, how beyond cognitive common sense and ability, but it is still science. Case had a dual educational background in psychology and literature, and wrote delicately and profoundly about the important features of Charlie's psychological and physical changes.
Ted Ginger, in his article The Evolution of Human Science, argues that the post-human exploration at the frontiers of science is far beyond human comprehension. In scientific fiction, science takes on an unimaginable appearance, and the world can still be completely shrouded in the "secret wall of science", and such fiction is always a fiction within the scope of science.
Science and fiction, psychology and imagination, cross-border integration will burst out a brilliant spark.
In view of this, the novel "Bouquet" has been a hit for film and television drama adaptations for many years. Adapted into a movie three times, the male protagonist of the first adapted film "Charlie" won the Oscar for Best Actor, followed by TV series, stage plays, musicals, cross-border adaptations of different countries and art disciplines.
When science fiction and music meet, new sparks burst out.
When the narrative text of the novel is combined with the authenticity of the music, what new sensory experiences will be brought to the audience?
Musicals, as the name suggests, have beautiful and catchy musical melodies, as well as characters with distinct and prominent personalities. Music and scripts are the key to the success of musical theaters. The shaping of a distinct character image is naturally inseparable from a mature script.
How does the musical Bouquet show Charlie's intellectual changes?
Chinese translation of the novel, unfolding in the form of a diary, the author artificially misuses words, words, punctuation marks, etc., and the translator continues to use typos, intending to remind the reader that Charlie's intelligence soared after surgery. Musicals do not have the functions of text and symbol writing, recording, and explanation.
Obviously, "Bouquet" as a musical needs to explore another common way of expression. With the help of the actors' physical language, lines, movements, expressions, stage installations and lighting and stage designs, the musical "Bouquet" tries to build another way to express "another" channel.
The text of the novel begins with Charlie writing a diary at the doctor's request, and the musical Bouquet begins with a depiction of scenes from everyday life in a bakery. Charlie's encounters in his daily life are the motivation for his treatment and the narrative driving force for the development of the drama.
When constructing its own narrative logic and power source, the musical "Bouquet" is thoughtful and proactive, without any ambiguity.
The ideological depth of literature is combined with the "Shakespeareanization" of drama
The original author stands in a post-human perspective. Even today, the novel still has practical significance, does not feel "outdated", and readers even lament the author's advanced consciousness at that time.
The great physical and psychological contrast between Charlie's preoperative and postoperative is extremely dramatic: Charlie's relationship with everyone around him, including Alice, who loves the woman, is in the "setting" of the storyline; Charlie's intelligence reaches its peak, rapidly declines, and even falls below its original level.
Human beings represented by Charlie and scientists have been ruthlessly disillusioned with the "transformation of the world", inevitably arousing doubts about the eternal existence of existing things, making people reflect on the social conflicts described - their historical and future solutions.
The literary nature, ideological depth and humanistic spirit of the novel are roughly the foundation of the novel's award-winning and cross-border.
And what is the ultimate purpose of all human theatrical art pursuits?
Marx and Engels answered this question in their reply to Lassalle, directly articulating the criticism of Lassalle's plays and literary views: "Shakespeare's" artistic creation proposition.
Coincidentally, in his reply to Fifer LaSalle, Engels put forward the hypothetical view of schiller's fusion with Shakespeare's point of view: "The perfect fusion of the greater depth of thought and the conscious historical content of German drama with the vividness and richness of the plot of Shakespeare's play is probably only possible in the future, and perhaps not at all by the Germans." ”
Engels pointed out that the future of theater is a combination of the ideological depth of literature and the "Shakespeareanization" of theater.
Musicals are built on music and scripts, and are different from literary forms such as novels and poetry, as well as from other forms of drama, opera and dance. Musical theater is a dramatic style with music and narrative as the main artistic presentation, and the three characteristics of musical theater are determined from the level of artistic laws: lyricism, narrative and conflict.
In the play, Charlie plays with fire, causing his mother to die in the sea of fire, and his father gives him to others to raise. In an environment of extreme lack of maternal and paternal love, Charlie lacks a sense of security and presence. When he encounters a team of researchers and has the opportunity to "get smarter", Charlie is desperate like a moth to a fire, even if the ending is Alginon.
The feelings of people, people's attachment to the world, and the confirmation of people and things are fused in the lyrical and narrative interweaving of the musical "Bouquet". As the conflict progresses, dramatic tension reaches its climax. The musical "Bouquet of Flowers" is the practice of the realistic view of drama creation and the attempt of the Marxist view of tragedy in the present.
After the operation, Charlie was full of mouths, never forgot, read a lot of books, and had a good feeling for the beautiful and kind Alice. Every time you touch her tender skin, not only will you have delicate and delicate and beautiful feelings, but you will also worry about the feelings of the other party and worry about whether the opposite sex feels offended. This emotion and entanglement, which is unique to normal people, is the full display of the vividness and richness of the plot.
Charlie in love is the highlight of his life, and he longs to be loved and friends. The vivid and rich presentation of this movement rhythm, psychological portrayal, body language, and facial expressions is the embodiment of the combination of the depth of thought and the "Shakespeareanization". This intuitiveness and thoroughness is unmatched by the text of the novel.
Artistically presents humanity in musicals
Musicals are ultimately stage art.
Stage art often has a common problem, macro ideas and structures often deviate from stage thinking, consciously or unconsciously away from the "small incision" perspective of "seeing the big with small", and completely looking down.
The musical Bouquet of Flowers solves this problem better.
It has a plot, a scene, a solo, a chorus, a re-singing, and the blessing of a live band, all of which add to it.
The flexible stage design, one second is a fragrant bakery, the next second it becomes a research laboratory under a shadowless lamp. The stage lighting is mostly cool blue, which adds to the depressing cold atmosphere and rendering. Many mental activities are represented by a mirror projection, and the shadow is Charlie's reflection and the viewer's reflection.
Beautiful butterflies, roaming in the sea of books, heavy snow in the sky, spring blossom trails, etc., the artistic way is uniquely presented, opening up the space for the audience's imagination. The free thoughts make the audience deeply understand that "existence is me", and empathy and resonance occur strongly.
In particular, Charlie's distinctive personality and dramatic actions in "Bouquet", as well as the advancement and development of the plot, are real contradictions and conflicts. Set settings and conversions are not flashy copying and stitching.
Uncle Donner, the bakery who guards Charlie, the father of the barber who feels guilty but dares not recognize him, the sister who refuses to accept the truth, Dr. Nimes, who is precise and omnipotent... The singing section of the protagonist or supporting role is heartfelt and moving, full of emotions, sincere and deep, and pins on the joys and sorrows of the characters.
The plot, singing segment, and stage presentation have achieved the sublimation of qualitative changes, and the audience has long been no longer the body, but has been "internalized" into a helpless and lonely, full of fear, congenitally defective Charlie.
A large number of excellent science fiction works have realized the foreknowledge of the future through imagination, and "Bouquet" is like standing in the past, imagining the relationship between future science and human nature. The musical's "secondary creation" of the original firmly grasps this focus and maximizes the connection and interconnection with human nature.
Anticipating that the deadline was approaching, Charlie came to a makeshift supper stall late at night and witnessed a scene of drunks bullying the stall owner. The frail Charlie felt empathy, compassion, and the same feelings. The scene where the sincere and kind Charlie stands out for the weak, acting without thinking and measuring up to his own strength, tenaciously fighting back against enemies who are several times stronger than himself. His behavior adds a touch of warmth to justice and humanity.
The musical "Bouquet" extra "adds drama", which is more humane and more touching than the original. Here the weak sympathize with the weak, the status is equal, the perspective is level, and the tension of the drama is more prominent.
The stupid Charlie is positive and optimistic, simply living in his own world. Technological "external forces" try to change Charlie's status quo, from children to adults, and finally return.
Charlie's "becoming smart" in a sense violates the laws of objective nature and lacks the stage of progressive cognition of the world, the self, and others. One step up to the sky, good or bad, infinite emotions can only be pinned on - a bouquet of flowers dedicated to Algino, who is buried in the back garden.
【About the Author】
Liu Yan is a young writer and critic.
Member of the Chinese New Literary and Art Group Review Committee. He was selected for the first National Literary and Art Criticism Leading Talents Training Class. The collection published essay collections "The Imprint of Flower City" and "Taste of Flower City" series have been published. The script "Like a Shadow" was selected for the second Guangdong Provincial Excellent Film Script Award, and "72 Hours of Zhong Nanshan Retrograde" was selected for the 2020 Annual Anthology.
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