美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Secret Life Of Bees' Takes On A Second Life As Musical Theater

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

"The Secret Life Of Bees," a novel by Sue Monk¹ Kidd, spent more than two years on the bestseller list when it came out in 2002, the story of a troubled white girl taken in by three African American beekeepers in South Carolina during the civil rights era. The book was turned into a movie, and now it's an off-Broadway musical. Jeff Lunden reports.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE²: When two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright³ Lynn Nottage was approached about writing the script for a musical version of "The Secret Life Of Bees," she said yes but knew it wasn't going to be easy adapting a novel told in first person.

LYNN NOTTAGE: We were very hyper-aware that we didn't want to create a tale which it was just about a young white woman entering into this household and being nurtured⁴ by black women but that it was a tale about community. And so it was two young women both who have been scarred in different ways who need to be healed who find refuge amongst this hive of women.

LUNDEN: In the musical, as in the book, the two women are a teenaged white girl abused by her single father and her black caretaker, who's been beaten and jailed for trying to vote. The hive of women that takes them in are three sisters who are deeply spiritual but have their own issues.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Hold this house together.

LUNDEN: And though the musical takes some significant departures from the book, novelist Sue Monk Kidd says the adaptation captures the spirit of her story.

SUE MONK KIDD: I think it was a brilliant move to make this more of an ensemble⁵ kind of point of view so it becomes about all of them. And it becomes about the community. And a big theme I hope to bring out in the novel was that this community of women can be healing.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Hold this house together. Hold this house together. Me and my sisters, we hold this house together. Hurt just one, you hurt us all, but we'll still be standing⁶ tall. Me, my sisters, all of y'all, hold this house together.

LUNDEN: The sisters are holding their house together in a time of great upheaval⁷ - 1964.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) On Thursday, the second of July, President Johnson signed the civil rights bill into law, calling on Americans to eliminate the last vestiges⁸ of injustice⁹ in America. Local activists¹⁰ vowed¹¹ to test the new provisions.

SAM GOLD: I think we all felt like this book lent itself to having a conversation about race in America right now.

LUNDEN: Tony Award-winning director Sam Gold has staged the adaptation.

GOLD: You look back at 1964 and you think what's changed and you think what hasn't, and that's an inevitable¹² part of making a show about 1964 and about civil rights.

LUNDEN: While Gold and the rest of the creative team were acutely aware of the challenges the book posed, they were also aware that their team only included one African American, Lynn Nottage. South Carolina-born composer Duncan Sheik, who collaborated¹³ on the score with lyricist Susan Birkenhead, says he questioned his role.

DUNCAN SHEIK: I said to myself, oh, maybe this is not my story to tell. I'm not from this community. I've witnessed it and been around it, but I'm not from this community.

EISA DAVIS: I'm glad that he had that concern. I really am.

LUNDEN: Eisa Davis plays one of the sisters.

DAVIS: That he was just trying to make sure that his writing in a variety of black musical idioms and genre¹⁴ would amount to something that was reverent¹⁵. And I think it is. I think that rather than cultural appropriation¹⁶, it's cultural appreciation¹⁷.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES")

DAVIS: (As June, singing) Who's going to win and who's going to lose? Yeah. Well, this girl here, she proud to be about to make some history. She signed her name...

LUNDEN: Actress Eisa Davis says her friends have had mixed reactions to the show, and her own response to the material is complicated.

DAVIS: I still have issues with part of how the play functions in that I think that it still is privileging a kind of white fragility and centering whiteness in a way that I think we are trying to dismantle¹⁸ right now in 2019.

LUNDEN: It was a criticism both the book and the movie received. But for playwright Lynn Nottage, that was actually something that drew her to the material.

NOTTAGE: There's this conversation around "Green Book" and "The Help" and stories of black folks sort of framed by a white author or a black journey that's seen through the white gaze. And I think one of the things that really attracted me to "The Secret Life Of Bees" and what makes this very different from those other stories is that this white girl enters into a black space, and she has to negotiate a space that's alien to her rather than the black body entering the white space.

LUNDEN: And that story, Nottage says, is something she's never told before. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) A world we never see, an ancient dance of give and take from bee to bee...

1 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 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。

4 nurtured   

养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长

参考例句：

• She is looking fondly at the plants he had nurtured. 她深情地看着他培育的植物。
• Any latter-day Einstein would still be spotted and nurtured. 任何一个未来的爱因斯坦都会被发现并受到培养。

5 ensemble   

n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果

参考例句：

• We should consider the buildings as an ensemble.我们应把那些建筑物视作一个整体。
• It is ensemble music for up to about ten players,with one player to a part.它是最多十人演奏的合奏音乐，每人担任一部分。

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

8 vestiges   

残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不

参考例句：

• the last vestiges of the old colonial regime 旧殖民制度最后的残余
• These upright stones are the vestiges of some ancient religion. 这些竖立的石头是某种古代宗教的遗迹。

9 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

10 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

12 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

13 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

14 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

15 reverent   

adj.恭敬的，虔诚的

参考例句：

• He gave reverent attention to the teacher.他恭敬地听老师讲课。
• She said the word artist with a gentle,understanding,reverent smile.她说作家一词时面带高雅，理解和虔诚的微笑。

16 appropriation   

n.拨款，批准支出

参考例句：

• Our government made an appropriation for the project.我们的政府为那个工程拨出一笔款项。
• The council could note an annual appropriation for this service.议会可以为这项服务表决给他一笔常年经费。

17 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

18 dismantle   

vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

参考例句：

• He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助，拆除这批弹头。
• The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动，于是，我决定把它拆开。