Reviewed by:

• The Breach by Naomi Wallace
• Erica Stevens Abbitt

In an era of social crisis in Britain and the United States, this production of Naomi Wallace’s provocative coming-of-age drama The Breach marked a series of firsts. It was the first time this award-winning British-American playwright had been featured at London’s Hampstead Theatre, despite its ongoing commitment to innovative drama. It was the first production for this venue directed by Sarah Frankcom, known for her fearless dedication to contemporary playwrights during her tenure at the Manchester Royal Exchange. It was also The Breach’s English-language premiere.

Ironically, this play, written by a Kentucky native, and commissioned by the Actors Theatre of Louisville, was firmly rejected for production by a number of American stages. In France, where translations of Wallace’s play are popular, and her Obie-award-winning drama One Flea Spare is in the permanent repertoire of the Comédie-Française, The Breach received its world premiere (as La Brèche) in a critically-acclaimed production at the 2019 Avignon Festival. (A Québécois version of La Brèche was performed in Montreal in 2021, and the play has recently been translated into German.)

Set in Kentucky in 1977 and 1991, The Breach dramatizes the lives of four people—first as teenagers, and then, for the three of them who survive into adulthood, as grown-ups—as their youthful dreams collide with the realities of a country ravaged by the Vietnam War and the destructive impact of Reaganomics.

The central figure is feisty sixteen-year-old Jude (Shannon Tarbet, a standout in a powerful cast). She fiercely guards her geeky, brainiac younger brother Acton (Stanley Morgan), carving out a basement sanctuary in their blue-collar home, where their hard-working widowed mother scarcely ever sets foot. When Acton is mercilessly bullied at school, he seeks protection from rich kid Hoke (Alfie Jones), and his eager sidekick Frayne (Charlie Beck). Thirteen years later, when the adult Jude (Jasmine Black-borow) returns to town after Acton’s suicide, she reunites with a grown-up Hoke (Tom Lewis), now CEO of his father’s pharmaceutical company, and a wary, chastened Frayne (Douggie McMeekin), still trailing in Hoke’s wake. As the past and present intersect, secrets are revealed, and troubling questions resurface: Did the boys drug and rape Jude on the night of her seventeenth birthday with her brother’s consent? Or were they tricked by the siblings into a promise of protection for Acton and a lifetime of guilt? Was a crime committed—and, if so, who were the victims? And what happens next?

In the Hampstead production of The Breach, the cast members encircled each other in a series of scenes moving fluidly across time and place. Frank-com honoured the playwright’s stage directions to embody wild moments with still bodies, which meant that actors appeared to hover on the edge of disturbing encounters. This approach (ably assisted by choreographer Jennifer Jackson) worked best with the younger performers, who vibrated with barely-repressed energy as they paused, almost in mid-flight, to speak of their father’s fatal fall or the shocking arrangement to trade access to Jude’s body for Acton’s survival. In the older actors, this risky technique was only fully realized near the end, when Blackborow (as the adult Jude) stood quietly, almost transfixed, delivering a joyful speech about the new life she planned with her daughter.

Supporting the productive tension between gritty realism and the surreal, dream-like nature of this [End Page 85]

Shannon Tarbet (Jude) in The Breach. Photo: Johan Persson.

[End Page 86]

Stanley Morgan (Acton), Douggie McMeekin (Frayne), Jasmine Blackborow (Adult Jude), Shannon Tarbet (Young Jude) in The Breach. Photo: Johan Persson.

disturbing narrative, Naomi Dawson created a minimalist set, both intimate and dangerous. Deftly lit by Rick Fisher, with a soundscape by Tingying Dong evoking the anarchic undertones of an American generation in transition, the performance space reinforced the play’s...

审核人：

• 内奥米华莱士的突破口
• 埃里卡·史蒂文斯·阿比特

在英美社会危机重重的时代，娜奥米·华莱士 (Naomi Wallace) 的挑衅性成长剧《裂口》( The Breach)的这部作品开创了一系列的先河。这是这位屡获殊荣的英美剧作家首次在伦敦的汉普斯特德剧院演出，尽管该剧院一直致力于创新戏剧。这是莎拉·弗兰克康 (Sarah Frankcom) 执导的该场馆的第一部作品，莎拉·弗兰克康 (Sarah Frankcom) 以在曼彻斯特皇家交易所任职期间对当代剧作家的无畏奉献而闻名。这也是The Breach 的英语首映。

具有讽刺意味的是，这部由肯塔基本地人编写并受路易斯维尔演员剧院委托的戏剧被许多美国舞台坚决拒绝制作。在法国，华莱士戏剧的译本很受欢迎，她获得奥比奖的戏剧One Flea Spare是法国喜剧院的永久剧目，The Breach在广受好评的制作中获得了全球首演（作为La Brèche ）在 2019 年阿维尼翁音乐节上。（魁北克版本的La Brèche于 2021 年在蒙特利尔上演，该剧最近被翻译成德语。）

The Breach以 1977 年和 1991 年的肯塔基州为背景，戏剧化地讲述了四个人的生活——首先是青少年，然后是三个活到成年的成年人——他们年轻的梦想与一个国家的现实发生碰撞遭受越南战争和里根经济学破坏性影响的蹂躏。

中心人物是活泼好动的 16 岁少年裘德（香农塔贝特，强大的演员阵容中的佼佼者）。她极力保护她怪异、聪明的弟弟阿克顿（斯坦利摩根饰），在他们蓝领家庭的地下室开辟了一个避难所，他们勤劳的寡母几乎从未踏足过那里。当阿克顿在学校被无情地欺负时，他向富家子弟霍克（阿尔菲琼斯）和他热切的伙伴弗莱恩（查理贝克）寻求保护。十三年后，成年的裘德（茉莉·布莱克博罗饰）在阿克顿自杀后回到镇上，她与成年的霍克（汤姆·刘易斯饰）重逢，霍克现在是他父亲制药公司的首席执行官，还有一个谨慎、受过磨练的弗莱恩（道吉饰） McMeekin)，仍然跟在 Hoke 的身后。随着过去和现在的交汇，秘密被揭开，令人不安的问题重新浮出水面：男孩们是否在 Jude 十七岁生日那天晚上在她哥哥的同意下吸毒强奸了她？或者他们是否被兄弟姐妹欺骗，承诺保护阿克顿并终生内疚？是否犯下了罪行——如果是，谁是受害者？接下来会发生什么？

在The Breach的汉普斯特德制作中, 演员们在一系列场景中相互环绕，这些场景在时间和地点上流畅地移动。Frank-com 尊重剧作家的舞台指导，以静止的身体体现狂野的时刻，这意味着演员似乎徘徊在令人不安的遭遇的边缘。这种方法（在编舞家詹妮弗杰克逊的巧妙协助下）对年轻的表演者效果最好，他们几乎在飞行途中停下来谈论他们父亲的致命跌倒或与裘德的交易通道的令人震惊的安排为了阿克顿的生存。在年长的演员身上，这种冒险的技巧只是在接近尾声时才完全实现，当时布莱克博罗（作为成年的裘德）静静地站着，几乎目瞪口呆地发表关于她与女儿计划的新生活的愉快演讲。

支持坚韧不拔的现实主义与超现实主义、梦幻般的本质之间的生产张力[结束第 85 页]

The Breach中的 Shannon Tarbet（裘德）。照片：约翰·佩尔松。

[第 86 页结束]

斯坦利·摩根（阿克顿）、道吉·麦克米金（弗莱恩）、茉莉·布莱克博罗（成年裘德）、香农·塔贝特（少年裘德）照片：约翰·佩尔松。

令人不安的叙事，Naomi Dawson 创造了一个极简主义的场景，既亲密又危险。里克·费舍尔 (Rick Fisher) 巧妙地打光，董婷颖 (Tingying Dong) 的音景唤起了转型期美国一代的无政府主义色彩，表演空间强化了该剧的……