时间：2022-08-04 10:47:10
我案头放着厚厚两卷由中国戏剧出版社出版的《尤文贵剧作选》：第一卷出版于1996年12月，第二卷出版于2007年7月。两卷收入剧本23个，约100万字。作者以其精妙娴熟的戏曲艺术技巧，为昆剧、徽剧、瓯剧、越剧、木偶剧等不同剧种，写出了历史剧、传奇剧、现代剧的多个剧本，其中既有正剧、悲剧，也有喜剧。
戏剧创作是一项综合艺术，尤文贵从事多剧种、多功能的戏曲创作实践能取得如此硕果，实在难能可贵。他对人说过， 此生追求的是想做一个承前启后的中国戏曲作家，为中华古老的戏剧艺术留下几粒种子。
我和尤文贵相识20多年了，1983年他的昆剧剧本《浮沉记》在浙江省首届戏剧节获奖，那年他54岁。当时得知，这是他错划“”22年改正后的重新亮相。此后我们长期不通讯息，直到去年省文化厅授予17位老剧作家荣誉奖状，才得悉尤文贵名列其中，这时他已77岁。这次我与他在杭州他的女儿家会面，通过深谈，对他的人生轨迹有了进一步了解，我觉得这位两鬓飞霜、风度儒雅、谈吐颇有见地的剧作家一生过得既艰辛也有价值，他是我辈同时代人中的佼佼者。他同我们许多胸怀壮志的朋友们一样，年轻时不幸丧失了自己的青春岁月，但是年逾50的他集中精力搞戏曲创作，终于把丢失的时间“追”了回来。他在创作中厚积薄发，废寝忘食，一个个剧本在他笔下诞生，一个个剧目又被先后搬上舞台，接着，有的剧目获得金奖，有的还出国门走向世界。
早在1997年《剧作选》一卷出版后，在杭州举行的尤文贵剧作学术研讨会上，他的剧作就得到了很高评价，大家认为一个历经几十年人生风雨的剧作家，以自己的才华让舞台上的人物表现得如此鲜灵生动、淋漓尽致，真不容易!“承才人之气，浓南戏之墨，扬时代之魂，育世纪之材。”――这是省文化厅授予他的奖状中所题赠的赞语。“才人”者，那是古代“剧作家”之称谓，尤文贵是温州平阳的“东瓯才人”，他的戏剧人生是超凡脱俗、广阔多姿的。尤文贵的戏曲创作，以其戏路宽广、雅俗共赏、艺术个性鲜明为戏剧评论界所称道。他的两卷选本23个剧本，是对传统戏曲的继承与创新，是一个值得探讨的“尤文贵现象”。
50年代中，25岁的尤文贵以现代戏《风雨夜》参加浙江省首届戏曲会演，啼声初试便摘取了剧本奖，这说明他具有很大的潜质。他从小就喜欢跟随母亲看戏，加之他的四叔又是带“戏班子”的，童年的耳濡目染，让他情不自禁地爱上了戏曲。所以当他流逝了黄金岁月之后仍不消沉丧志，在年逾“知天命”之后一旦重新执笔，灵感仍然势如潮涌，仅上世纪的1980―1988年间，就创作和改编了16个剧本，其中包括著名的《杨贵妃后传》《浮沉记》《仇大姑娘》《蝴蝶梦》《憨痴传奇》等等。特别值得提及的是《杨贵妃后传》，杨贵妃死于马嵬坡历史早有记载，但杨贵妃究竟是否死于马嵬坡仍是一个迷团，世上流传着各种说法。尤文贵借取此一题材作了大胆想象，虚构了杨贵妃并未被绞死而流浪东瀛，他将戏剧情节由此展开描写了唐明皇与杨贵妃的感情世界。这个剧本文字优美，格调高雅，演出后观众反响强烈；他在80年代初创作的《仇大姑娘》，取材于《聊斋・仇大娘》，写了堕落赌徒在姐姐仇大姑娘教育下终于浪子回头，富有现实教育意义，演出效果极佳。这出戏的路子完全不同于《杨贵妃后传》，如果说《杨贵妃后传》的语言是诗意的，风格是典雅的，那么《仇大姑娘》中的人物用的是民间口语，它通俗、泼辣而又朗朗上口；《蝴蝶梦》的艺术形象则充满哲理和思辨性。他在上世纪90年代后期创作的一卷收入了《七彩梦》《金鸡报晓》等现代越剧以及描写茶圣陆羽的《茶缘》和根据同名南戏改编的《杀狗记》、十集戏曲电视剧《杨乃武平冤记》等，这些不同时代背景戏曲题材剧本的创作，显示了独特的艺术风格，十分难能可贵，这是他在艺术实践中勇敢探索的结果!
我和尤文贵见面时，他对我谈得最多的倒不是自己的剧作而是他的学生，他说：“目前戏曲艺术青黄不接，人才断层，我得为此作出努力才是。我可以的是，如今我带了三个学生，一个郑朝阳，一个施小琴，他们都已写出了很优秀的作品，现在一个是温州市文联主席，一个是艺术研究所所长，他们的优秀剧本演出后获得国际的和国家的金奖；还有一个汤琴如今也崭露了头角，很有希望。”
Late-blooming Playwright Writes 23 Plays
By Zhang Baihuai
I have known You Wengui for more than two decades. His Kunqu play named Vicissitudes won a major prize at the province’s first festival of operas in 1983. He was 54 years old that year. Twenty two years had elapsed after he was wrongfully dismissed as the rightist. We did not keep in contact with each other. It was not until 2006 that I learned he was one of the seventeen playwrights honored for lifelong accomplishments in theater by Zhejiang Administration of Culture. He was 77 years old in 2006. I visited him at his daughter’s home and we had a long conversation. He looked graceful with his gray hair. He talked in an elegant way. The insightful playwright has had a life of vicissitudes.
Like many of us contemporaries, You Wengui suffered in his youth in the chaotic years and his playwriting career did not take off until he was in his fifties. In a burst of youthful creativity, the playwright in his fifties turned out excellent plays one after another in quick succession. They were staged at home and abroad and some won prizes. China Theater Press has published his twenty-three plays into two volumes. The first collection was published in December 1996 and the second in July 2007. The twenty-three historical and modern plays include tragedies and comedies and other plays. They have been staged in various operatic genres.
In celebration of You’s first collection, a seminar was held in Hangzhou in 1996. At the gathering, experts spoke highly of his playwriting achievements. They agreed that it was really amazing that You Wengui in his fifties produced so many successful plays after a dramatic life of upheavals over decades. Today, experts agree that his twenty-three plays are a phenomenon of inheritance and innovation.
He could have created more and better when he was younger, for his first play won him a major provincial playwright prize in the mid 1950s when he was 25. The talent came from his family. As a child, he followed his mother to watch local opera performances. His fourth uncle was a manager of a troupe. He is a natural for playwriting. Within eight years from 1980 to 1988, he wrote and adapted sixteen plays.
In our conversation, the modest playwright did not talk very much about himself. He spent much time talking proudly about his three promising disciples. Zheng Chaoyang is president of Wenzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Shi Xiaoqin is director of the Art Research Institute. They both have produced excellent plays and won national and international prizes. Tang Qinru is beginning to cut a brilliant figure as a rising playwright.
(Translated by David)