VOA慢速英语:科伦拜枪击事件激发纽约话剧的创作灵感
Welcome to American Mosaic, from VOA Learning English. I'm Caty Weaver.
Americans faced yet another gun tragedy last week in California. In the latestincident, the attacker killed six people and then himself. A play currently onstage in New York City explores the emotions surrounding such tragic events. Christopher Cruise has more.
“The Library” is a new play at New York’s Public Theater. It tells about whathappens after a school shooting. It examines the broken lives of survivors.
The play is directed by Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh. Scott Z. Burns is the playwright.
Even before the play begins, Soderbergh and Burns create unease amongtheater goers. As they enter, they see a young woman in a hospital gown in the middle of the stage. She is lying on what could be a bed or a table. Shecould be in the hospital or in a morgue, where dead bodies are kept forexamination. Playwright Burns explains.
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A scene from the play "The Library." |
"People start having to invent a story, you know, which is: Is she alive? Is she not alive? And so they’re already, before we’ve said anything, experiencingwhat the play is about, which is, you know, you start assembling facts andtruths into stories that support your belief set and allow you to keep going."
The young woman on the stage is playing a teenage character named CaitlinGabriel. She has survived a deadly shooting attack at her high school. One of the other survivors has accused Caitlin on television of telling the gunmanwhere several victims were hiding.
Seventeen-year-old film actress Chlöe Grace Moretz plays Caitlin.
"And so Caitlin Gabriel wakes up out of her induced coma, basically, and shefinds out right then and there that not only is her best friend that she waslaying beside dead, but that she’s now being accused of being an accompliceto the murder of six children and one faculty member."
"Then he went over to these two girls, I think he recognized one of them -Caitlin Gabriel - and they started talking. He asked her where the others werehiding, and she said, 'The A-V (audio visual) closet, they're in the A-V closet.'"
That is from “The Library.” As the characters attempt to learn the truth, eachof them, children and parents, try to control what is reported about the attack.Director Steven Soderbergh has seen that happen after real school attacks.
"We were fascinated by not only the idea of competing stories that have to dobattle, but also another story or another myth that often comes out of eventslike these is that somehow everyone who goes through a tragedy is somehowennobled by it, if they survive. And we were interested in sort of proposing amore realistic version of that story, which is: some people that go throughtragedies like this are just damaged."
It was the story of one survivor of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High Schoolin Colorado that led Scott Z. Burns to write the play. Two Columbine studentskilled 12 of their classmates and a teacher. Burns says shortly after theattack misinformation about victims and survivors began to spread.
"And, so when stories get out - you know, especially now when we have a lotof unfiltered media that finds its way into our eyes and ears very quickly afterthese things - it’s hard to get it back."
Actress Chlöe Grace Moretz puts it even more simply.
"It’s like the whisper game you’d play at camp, you know, where one personwhispers at the other end of the table and then they all whisper the same thingand then by the end of it, you find out it’s a completely different story."
Caitlin (on phone to her friend): "Hey, Brit. Look, are you ever going to call meback? I just talked to the police, and... uh, you didn't tell me you talked to themtoo. I wish you would have told me that. Can't you just come over? But don’ttext, OK? I think they can read those somehow. Just tell your parents youreally want to check on me. And if the photographers are still across thestreet, maybe go around back."
The gunman is not central to “The Library.” The character that could beconsidered oppositional is the mother of one of the victims. She deals with herloss by writing a book and advising on a film. Both works show her daughteras a hero. The book and movie also accuse Caitlin of leading the gunman toother victims.
Mother: "I don't want to hear it from the paper, Caity. I want to hear it from you. I need to know your story."
Caitlin: "My story."
Mother: "What happened? From your perspective."
Caitlin's dad: "What you told the police."
Caitlin: "Oh, um, okay. Well... I remember he asked me if I knew who he was, and I thought he was worried about being identified, so I said no, even though Idid."
Mother: "I see. You were trying to protect yourself."
Caitlin: "Yeah."
Caitlin's dad: "Of course she was."
Mother: "And that meant telling him where the others were hiding."
Caitlin: "No! No, I don't... remember saying that."
Mother: “Ryan Mayes heard you say it. From what I understand he was just afew feet away.”
Father: “That’s not her recollection.”
As new information is communicated about the characters and events,director Steven Soderbergh says audience members begin to question theirown beliefs.
"The story sort of comes at you in waves, you know what I mean? Like weexperience the news cycle - sort of every scene there’s another shoe thatdrops and you go, ‘Oh boy, now I have to rethink what I’ve been watching.’”
The advertising for “The Library” says the play is “based on future events.” Sadly, this will probably prove true.
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