Second Street (Staged Reading) 第二街 （读剧）

第二街 （1960）叶苔痕著

六月要讀的這部劇，是葉苔痕為 1960 年檳城華人諮詢委員會主辦的劇作比賽而寫的。甚至還贏得了新加坡文化部主辦劇作比賽的金像獎。

背景為那種被雨水浸透、充滿市井粗礪感的馬來亞街頭，空氣中還哼著「慢恰恰」的切分音節奏。表面上，它看起來就像個節奏緊湊、單純的「警匪追逐」故事：一個意想不到的小姑娘，正在設法智取那兩個剛把手槍和一把沾血利刃塞進路邊垃圾桶的亡命之徒。但在這緊張的戲劇架構下，有沒有可能，葉苔痕其實在試圖摸索那個國家剛誕生、一切都還脆弱且動盪的年代，「公民身份」和「法律」對普通老百姓來說到底意味著什麼。

關子就賣到這裡，六月的每個禮拜四，傍晚 7 點半，我們在 RUAS 相約一起讀劇。如果天時地利人和，6 月 25 日那晚，我們將會有個讀劇呈現。

第二街 (1960)__葉苔痕.pdf

Second Street (1960) by Yeap Thye Hoon

A play written by Yeap Thye Hoon, it was actually written for a specific playwriting competition organized by the Penang Chinese Advisory Board back in 1960. It even won a gold prize from the Singapore Ministry of Culture.

It’s set right in the rain-soaked, gritty reality of a Malayan street corner, a "Slow Cha-cha" rhythm humming. On the surface, it may look like a simple, fast-paced "cops and robbers" story about an unlikely young girl outsmarting some desperate criminals who just stuffed a gun and a bloody blade into a street-side trash can. But, beneath that tense, theatrical action, could Yeap Thye Hoon actually be trying to figure out what "citizenship" and "law" actually meant to the ordinary "citizen" at a time when the nation itself was still brand new, fragile, and volatile?

Well, we won't go into details now, so come join us every Thursday in June, 7pm, at RUAS. We'll figure it out together, and if capability allows, we might have a staged reading presentation on June 25th.

Ka-kī Baca > Script 剧本 Skrip > June: 第二街 (1960) _ 葉苔痕

Second Street (1960)_Yeap Thye Hoon.pdf