化為六月息

-----【譯文初稿】-----

〝大競賽下的阿富汗 (The Great Game: Afghanistan)〞，是由十五部每片長達三十分鐘的劇作所組成的一系列影片，將阿富汗因外族占領與混戰而錯縱複雜的歷史，呈現出來。這是有史以來，在英國首度公開上演關於阿富汗長遠歷史演進的專門報導。整部戲一開始把背景時間設定在1842年，而這一年正好是大英帝國在阿富汗遭遇到前所未有的軍事挫敗，大約有一萬六千名的士兵被迫撤離。

阿富汗長期被外族侵略與占領的歷史時代，大約是1950年代到1970年代。血腥的戰爭，就在蘇聯 (Soviet) 與伊斯蘭聖戰組織 (the mujahideen)，還有塔利班組織 (Taliban) 間展開。另一方面，九一一事件後，在2001年時，美國與其他外國軍隊進駐阿富汗，讓阿富汗脫離了塔利班組織的掌控。

對於三輪車劇院 (Tricycle Theatre) 的尼可拉斯‧肯特 (Nicolas Kent) 來說，這是他藝術生涯裡頭的一大挑戰。肯特邀集了十五位來自英美兩國的頂尖劇作家，創作了這一系列影片的劇本。肯特說：「我們在阿富汗待了十到十五年的時間。當我一開始進行這個專案劇作時，並沒有獲得媒體的青睞，而且給予反饋的人很少。我認為人們不僅想知道阿富汗究竟發生了什麼事情，還想貼近它的歷史，更對西方社會在過去兩百年來如何涉入阿富汗而感到興趣。」(show 2)

在十五部系列影片之中，有一部把焦點放在一位名叫乎瑪 (Huma) 的阿富汗婦女身上，她和丈夫在塔利班組織掌控阿富汗期間，秘密的費盡了千辛萬苦重建學校，因為當時女性是禁止接受教育的。後來塔利班發現了她們的學校，殺了乎瑪的丈夫，因此乎瑪被她丈夫的族人所孤立，必須自己想辦法生存。到了2001年以後，乎瑪獲得援助工作者的支持，重建了學校，卻因為受到家長的質疑而招收不到足夠的學生。

這一系列的影片在四月十七日於北倫敦進行首映，並且作為為期二個月阿富汗文化歷史慶祝節的一環。除了具有藝術與戲劇價值外，肯特還希望透過這些影片，讓全球討論應該對阿富汗採取什麼行動，並且關心它的未來。

 ※ 正式定稿與影像：「 新唐人電視台 ─ 娛樂新幹線 235 」

※ The original article was taken from Reuters Website.  ( 原文取自路透社網站 )




-----【原文對照】-----

INTRO: Two centuries of Afghan history take centre stage in London.  A series of plays in a London theatre takes a look back at two hundred years Afghan history and poses a question about Afghanistan's future.

STORY: The play begins with a scene set in 1842 when the British empire suffered its worst military defeat in Afghanistan, forcing a retreat by some 16,000 soldiers. Four buglers sound off the advance at Jalabad, that marked the border of Afghanistan with British ruled India.

"The Great Game: Afghanistan" is a series of fifteen 30-minute plays spanning the country's complex history dominated by violent foreign occupation and infighting.  This is the first time a project covering a long period of history makes it on stage in Britain, giving Tricycle Theatre's Nicolas Kent the biggest challenge of his artistic career.

"We're going to be in Afghanistan for the next 10-15 years. And when I first doing this project, it wasn't much discussed in the media. There was very little done, very little artistic response to Afghanistan. There was the Kite Runner and nothing much else. And I felt people really wanted to know what was happening in Afghanistan, they wanted to know more about the country's history, and they wanted to know especially more about the way the west had been involved in Afghanistan for the past two centuries," said Kent who commissioned 15 top playwrights from Britain and the United States to work on each play. (show 2)

The play covers Afghanistan's long history of foreign invasion and occupation, the period of relative calm from the 1950s to the 1970s, the bloody wars between the Soviet and the mujahideen, between the Taliban and the mujahideen, the bombings after 9/11 and the arrival of American and other foreign troops after the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban in 2001.

One play focuses on Huma, an Afghan woman's struggle to rebuild a school she and her husband secretly ran during the time of the Taliban which banned education for girls. Huma's story echoes many of those in real life. Her husband was killed by the Taliban when they find out about the school, her husband's family isolates her, leaving her on her own to struggle for survival. After 2001, she gets a new lease on life in the form of an aid agency worker wanting to help rebuild her school. But Huma can't get enough students to come, many of whom are prevented by anxious and suspicious parents.

The series premieres at the north London theatre on April 17 and forms part of a two-month cultural festival celebrating Afghanistan's culture and history.  Beyond its artistic and theatrical scope, Kent hopes the series will help in the global debate on what to do with Afghanistan and its future.