Critique 3

by Elyse Sommer

The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? tears down the boundaries between

realism and absurdism…. Martin tells Ross what he's been

unable to tell his wife. The revelation is a bombshell, the

author's way of testing the audience's tolerance. It may bewilder

and offend, but if you take the leap into his mindset, you will

eventually come to realize that tolerance is the key to the play's

meaning. In a world where the borders between what is "sick"

and what is "normal" are constantly eroding, our capacity for

tolerance is constantly being tested. Modern, intelligent liberals

like Stevie and Martin accept their son's homosexuality

(something still classified as sick in the seventy-year-old Albee's

youth). However, as they grapple with a still closeted taboo, their

tolerance of Billy's sexuality proves itself to be still fraught with

reservations. The taboo used to explode the surface of this

family's contentment may also be seen as Albee's attack on a

society so bland that it fosters extreme behavior.


《山羊或誰是蘇維亞？》扯裂了現實主義和荒謬主義的界線…

Ｍａｒｔｉｎ向Ｒｏｓｓ吐露了他無法告訴妻子的秘密，而這件

事的披露投下了一顆炸彈－一顆作者用來測試觀眾容忍度的重磅

彈。劇情也許另人困惑難解，也或許使人感到冒犯；但若能跳進

他的思維中，你就會發現「容忍」是了解此劇意義的關鍵。身處

於「病態」「常態」界線持續受到磨蝕的世界，我們的容忍度也

不斷地受到挑戰。現代、思想右派的知識份子如Ｓｔｅｖｉｅ和

Ｍａｒｔｉｎ接受了兒子是同性戀的事實（而同性戀在七十歲的

Ａｌｂｅｅ青年時代仍舊被視為是一種病態）；但在他們與傳統

禁忌角力的同時，兩夫妻對Ｂｉｌｌｙ性向的看法仍然相當地保

守。掀開美滿家庭表面的這些的禁忌也可以看做是Ａｌｂｅｅ對

一個因了無生氣而促成極端行為的社會所進行的批判。


翻譯：林彥均