剧评：移心 Transplant
疑心生暗鬼——观十指帮《移心》
剧评/ 张英豪
现代版聊斋式的警世寓言、天马行空的现代戏偶、铿锵凌厉的金属音乐，三种截然不同的元素揉杂在一起，会碰撞出什么化学反应？
受滨海艺术中心委任制作剧场演出的十指帮，首次携手本地“吠陀金属乐”（Vedic Metal）乐团Rudra，在2024年华艺节中强强联手呈献偶戏《移心》。
《移心》由十指帮艺术总监钟达成编导，是一部现代版、聊斋式的寓言故事。它叙述了太原（詹辉振饰）收留一名无家可归、来历不明的貌美女子阿绣（由戏偶和陈宇泱分饰）为女佣后，给自己的四口之家带来翻天覆地的变化。太原内有对他缺乏信任、分房异枕的妻子江城（郭沛珊饰），上有卧病在床、满口妇德的老母亲（戏偶，由扮演黑鬼之一的骆丽诗配音），下有资质愚钝、屡次考试落第的儿子元丰（梁海彬饰）。剧中人物看不见的三只黑鬼（由骆丽诗、曾美元、杜妍霖饰）则爬行跳跃在各个场景之中，时而调皮、时而诡异。
《移心》谐音“疑心”、“异心”，而疑心生暗鬼，太原一家的变故一方面是阿绣所诱发的，另一方面却是彼此之间长期以来埋下的疑心/异心所引爆的——老母亲与儿媳妇江城婆媳不和，怀疑是江城把她推下楼梯，导致她卧病在床，并且总是怀疑江城要在她的食物中下毒害她；江城怀疑太原出轨，几年来不愿与他同床共枕、亲密接触；太原对江城始终坚称自己从未出轨，却无法自制，与阿绣发生关系；元丰不想再考试，而想成家，却拗不过父母的执着。太原一家貌合神离，在整部剧中处在分崩离析的边缘。
从故事内容和人物名称（还有达成的自述）可以看出，《移心》的灵感来自经典文学作品《聊斋志异》的《画皮》、《小翠》、《陆判》、《阿绣》、《黑鬼》、《婴宁》、《江》等等故事。这不是达成第一次从《聊斋志异》中摄取灵感——2023年十指帮《偶会好的》三联剧中由达成编导的《离》、2018年达成与刘晓义联手创作的《大狗民》都是现代版聊斋式的故事。达成对《聊斋志异》可说是情有独钟。达成也会在作品中沿用之前作品的符号，不断探索与扩充这些符号的意义，形成一个具标志性的、达成式的符号系统。在《离》中能“四分五裂”的女子人偶，以及三只黑鬼，都在《移心》中再度登场，继续“吓唬”观众。（剧评人张佩思在她对《移心》的心得分享中，便从互文性的角度，分享了她从2015年钟达成版本的《灵戏》到这部《移心》中观察到的达成作品中不断复现的符号。）
在《离》中原本象征心魔的三只黑鬼，在《移心》中则具体指涉佛教概念中的三毒——贪、嗔、痴。达成20年前出演戏剧盒《聊斋》（也是华艺节委任作品）时熟读了《聊斋志异》——《聊斋志异》中虽然没有直接提到“贪嗔痴”，但是达成却从中读到了书中人物或全体人类苦难烦恼的根源其实均来自这三毒。剧中人物也分别代表这三毒——太原的“贪”、江城的“嗔”、元丰的“痴”，引领他们在各项选择与决定中，走向最终的悲剧。《移心》探索的命题正是人性的“贪嗔痴”。
Rudra乐团的现场演奏，直指“贪嗔痴”的命题。他们以华语、英语、梵语三种语言，搭配节奏强劲的重金属音乐，吟唱有关“贪嗔痴”的歌词，将恐怖氛围与人物情感渲染到极致。达成不愧是鬼才，竟然想到以自己完全不熟悉的音乐类型重金属乐来演绎《移心》，并不惜辗转找来本地传奇乐团Rudra乐团合作。1992年成军的Rudra乐团以死亡金属乐起家，后将印度传统音乐、梵文颂歌和咒语融入死亡金属乐中，开创“吠陀金属”流派。三毒的概念本就源自吠陀经典，以吠陀金属乐为偶戏《移心》配乐可谓相得益彰。达成甚至刻意将剧本台词精简化，留下更多空间给配乐填充，并且赋予Rudra乐团绝对的创作自由。达成勇于挑战自己完全不懂的音乐类型，Rudra乐团也勇于尝试自己从未接触的表演形式，才能带给观众听觉上震耳欲聋的冲击，聆听到剧中人物灵魂的呐喊。
戏偶的天马行空，则为观众带来视觉上的飨宴。偶戏与恐怖故事、志怪小说也可说是天作之合。十指帮历年累积、令人叹为观止的戏偶创意与操作，巧妙地生成《移心》中一幕幕怪诞诡谲的画面，让观众留下难以磨灭的“阴影”。入场时，舞台上躺着老母亲，以及背对坐着的阿绣。我原本以为开场前一动也不动的阿绣和老母亲一样是人偶，开场时阿绣动了起来，我才后知后觉这是宇泱饰演的阿绣。（辛苦宇泱在冷气十足的剧院内穿着清凉，还得挺直地坐着不动。）人偶阿绣（根据宇泱的脸型和身型制作的模型）和宇泱阿绣在剧中交叉出现，结尾阿绣被太原分尸时，四分五裂的尸块在空中漂浮，最终又合体的画面，正是仰赖戏偶才能产生的惊悚效果。再如阿绣挖出老母亲的心脏（古人相信人靠心脏思考），再移植到元丰身上时，不小心拉出大肠又塞回体内这样一幕既惊悚又诙谐的画面，一遍遍带给观众视觉上的冲击，一遍遍展现现代偶戏的可能性。
《移心》是今年华艺节我最期待的剧作，而达成与十指帮正常发挥，确实不负所望。不过看完演出后，我还是感到意犹未尽——作为一个熟口熟脸的故事，《移心》是否能进一步作出出人意料的诠释或提供独到新鲜的寓意？开始期待达成与十指帮下一部现代版、聊斋式的偶戏能超常发挥。
关于演出：2024年2月23日，8PM，滨海艺术中心新电信水滨剧院，十指帮 呈现
官方资料：https://fingerplayers.com/production/transplant/
Suspicious Hearts Breed Dark Ghosts - Reviewing The Finger Players’"Transplant"
Review by Teo Eng Hao
A modern version of Liaozhai's cautionary fable, a wildly imaginative modern puppetry, and powerful metal music— what kind of chemical reaction will result from the mixing of these three very different elements?
The Finger Players, in a collaboration with the Esplanade and local Vedic Metal group Rudra, came together for the first time to present the puppetry show “Transplant” at the Huayi Festival 2024.
Written and directed by The Finger Players artistic director Oliver Chong, “Transplant” is a modern day take on classic moral story Liaozhai. It tells the story of Tai Yuen (Alvin Chiam), who brings about sweeping changes for his family of four after taking in a homeless, beautiful woman of unknown origin, Ah Siu, as a caretaker (portrayed by puppet and Ellison Tan). There is Tai Yuen’s wife, Jiang Cheng (Jo Kwek), lacks trust in the husband and sleeps in a separate room. There is Tai Yuen’s bedridden mother (a puppet, voiced by Myra Loke, who also plays one of the black ghosts), and his son Yuan Feng (Neo Hai Bin), who is slow in study and has failed his exams repeatedly. The three black ghosts (played by Myra Loke, Vanessa Toh and Angelina Chandra) crawl and jump around, sometimes mischievous, and at times spooky.
The Chinese name for “Transplant” is synonymous with "suspicion" and “dissimulation". Suspicion breeds dark ghosts, and the disruptions in Tai Yuen’s family are both induced by Ah Xiu as well as the suspicion/dissimulation between the family members. The elderly mother is at odds with her daughter-in-law Jiang Cheng, always suspecting that it was Jiang Cheng who pushed her down the stairs, causing her to be bedridden, and always suspecting that Jiang Cheng is going to poison her food. Jiang Cheng suspects Tai Yuen of cheating on her, and for several years she has been unwilling to share the same bed with him and be intimate with him. Tai Yuen always maintains that he has never cheated on his wife, yet he engages in sexual acts with Ah Xiu. Yuan Feng doesn't want to keep taking exams, and wish to start a family, but his parents would not allow it. Throughout the play, Tai Yuen's family appears to be on the verge of falling apart.
From the story and the names of the characters (as well as Reach's self-narrative), one can see that “Transplant" was inspired by the classic literary work “Liaozhai", with stories such as “Painted Skin”, “Xiao Cui”, “Lu Zhi”, “Ah Xiu”, “Black Ghosts”, “Infant Ning”, “Jiang Cheng”, and so on.
This isn't the first time that Oliver has taken inspiration from “Liaozhai”— "Parting", written and directed by Oliver Chong in 2023, and “Citizen Dog” (in which Oliver teamed up with Liu Xiaoyi to create in 2018), are both modernized versions of Liaozhai too. Oliver obviously love Liaozhai. Oliver also love using the symbols from his previous works, constantly exploring and expanding the meaning of these symbols to form an iconic, “Oliver-style” theatrical universe. The puppet that can be "torn apart" in “Parting”, as well as the three black ghosts, all made their appearances agin in “Transplant”, continuing their work in "scaring" the audience. (Theater reviewer Teo PeiSi, in her insights of “Transplant”, shared her observations of the recurring symbols in Oliver’s plays— from “The Spirit Play” (2015) to “Transplant”, analysing such phenomenon from the perspective of intertextuality.)
The three black ghosts, which originally symbolized the demons of the mind in “Parting”, now refer specifically to the Buddhist concept of the “three poisons”— greed, anger, and obsession. Oliver familiarized himself with the stories of Liao Zhai when he performed in “Liaozhai” by Drama Box 20 years ago (also a commissioned work for Huayi Festival). Even though Liaozhai did not specifically mention "greed, anger, and obsession”, Oliver feels that the root cause of all sufferings and troubles that the characters undergo in the book— and of all human beings— actually comes from these three poisons. In fact, the characters in the play represent these three poisons (Tai Yuen's “greed", Jiang Cheng's "anger," and Yuan Feng's “obsession”, which lead them in their choices and decisions towards ultimate tragedy. The proposition explored in “Transplant” is as such: the "greed, anger and obsession" of human nature.
Rudra's live performance is a direct reference to the proposition of the three poisons. The band sang in a mix of Mandarin, English and Sanskrit, and with this incorporation of vedic metal music and strong rhythm, the horror atmosphere and the characters' emotions are rendered to the extreme. It is a stroke of genius on Oliver’s part to be able to think of putting vedic metal with the story of “Transplant”, despite his unfamiliarity with the music genre. The legendary Rudra, who started out as a death metal band in 1992, and later incorporated traditional Indian music, Sanskrit chants, and mantras into their music, created the unique genre of "Vedic Metal". The concept of the three poisons originated from the Vedic classics. The pairing of Vedic metal with "Transplant" is a perfect match. Oliver even intentionally simplified the amount of spoken texts, leaving more space for the music, giving Rudra absolute creative freedom. The fact that Oliver was brave enough to challenge himself with a genre of music that he knew nothing about, and how Rudra was brave enough to try a form of performance that they had never been exposed to before, made for a sounding impact on the audience, allowing the audience to feel the soulful screams of the characters.
The space for imagination offered by the puppets serve also as a visual feast for the audience. The combination of puppetry, horror, and the supernatural is a perfect match. The masterful skill in puppetry manipulation accumulated by The Finger Players over the years have culminated in the grotesque and bizarre scenes in “Transplant”, leaving the audience with indelible “traumatic experiences". When I entered the theater, the old mother (puppet) was lying on the stage, Ah Xiu was sitting with her back to the audience, and I thought Ah Xiu, who was sitting motionless, was a puppet too. But when the show begins and Ah Xiu actually moved, I realized that that was actually the actress Ellison Tan (It must be so difficult for Ellison to hold her posture for so long, and with so little clothes on, in such a cold theater!). The puppet Ah Xiu (in the likeness of Ellison's face) and the actrress Ah Xiu interchanges freely through the play. Towards the end of the story, when the puppet Ah Xiu is chopped up by Tai Yuen, the effect of the dismembered body parts floating in space and eventually merging together again is exactly the kind of chilling effect that can only be created with puppets. Another example is when Ah Xiu digs out the old mother's heart (the ancients believed that people relied on the heart to think) and then transplants it into Yuan Feng's body, accidentally pulling out the intestines, and stuffing them back into the body. That was a scene that is both frightening and whimsical, creating strong and powerful visual impacts to the audience, whilst demonstrating the possibilities of puppetry.
“Transplant" was the play I was looking forward to most in this year's Huayi Festival, and Oliver and The Fingers Players lived up to expectations. However, after the performance, I was still left with a feeling of “inadequacy”— with such a familiar story as Liaozhai, could “Transplant” have actually provides the audience with newer interpretations or fresher takes of Liaozhai? I'm already looking forward to the next modern puppetry show inspired by Liaozhai by Oliver Chong and The Finger Players, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it will play out.
(The reviewer watched the show on 23rd February 2024)
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