“水军”戏班

A Theatrical Troupe "on Waters"

上午9点多,东寿越剧团的绿皮船在狭窄水道中驶向绍兴市马山镇陆家埭村,戴着乌毡帽、憨厚的宣军师傅和剧团老板俞寿长抛好锚,将船稳稳地靠在岸边。绿皮钢板船承载着以船为基地、常年穿梭在水乡各个村镇的一支越剧"水军"——东寿越剧团。这是个绍兴即将消失的以船为家的民营剧团,16个人一条船,全部家当都在船上。演员都有些上年纪了,几乎都来自越剧发源地嵊州。正月里是这些民营剧团演出最繁忙的日子,由于近年剧团的收入稳定和演出的需求不减。

Dongshou Yue Opera Theatrical Troupe is a private troupe,which takes a boat with steel hull and green awning as its base and shuttles all the year round on the water regions between the towns and villages of Shaoxing.Similar to other few such troupes,it consists of 16 members,including the staff and actresses,who are all a bit of aged and come almost exclusively from Shengzhou,the home of Yue Opera. The boat contains all the properties of the troupe,so the corridor between the cabins turns out to be quite narrow.However,there exist over ten berths in the boat,divided by cloth curtains,each of which is less than two square meters,serving as the bedroom and dressing room of an individual actress.As a rule,the boat sets sail for a new place to give performances early in the morning when the actresses are still sound asleep and the whole show won’t be over until late at night.By the time everyone is free of strenuous work and once again has leisure at their disposal,they are all utterly exhausted,but some warm feelings add to the atmosphere in the boat.The actresses give phone calls to their families,knit sweaters or deride each other,enjoying their hard- earned but short cosy moment.