Papa’s Time Machine is a theatrical performance that just recently ended last month at Shanghai’s Daning Theatre. The play is a poetically orchestrated and uniquely fantastical project created by Chinese visual artist Maleonn. Both real people and puppets share the same stage throughout the performance. For this project, Maleonn employed techniques that are commonly seen in contemporary video art and installation art; by combining these techniques with his alternative storytelling approaches and live music, Maleonn has created an innovative and playful project that expands the notion of puppetry. He has pushed the boundaries of puppet theatre, and in the process, transformed the dying art form into a compelling and contemporary performance piece.
近期在大宁剧院上演的这部风格奇幻、充满诗意的非传统戏剧《爸爸的时光机》，是视觉艺术家马良的首次戏剧游戏。它结合了独创的“演员与木偶平行表演”的舞台表现，运用当代艺术中的装置及影像手段，配以现场音乐演奏等多元化的表现形式，彻底颠覆了观众对于木偶剧的一贯认知。
The concept for Papa’s Time Machine originated in an unlikely location – a swimming pool. One day, Maleonn’s father repeatedly asked him, “Do you know how to swim?” over and over again. Maleonn humored his father and swam every time the question was asked. His father’s declining memory was becoming more and more apparent around this time. The gradually worsening condition of his father became the very foundation of Papa’s Time Machine. In the play, the main character Makugee’s father also suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Being a brilliant scientist, Makugee constructs a time machine so that his father could relive some of their happiest memories together. Every instance of time travel in the play was presented as a beautiful and nostalgic journey. The entire play seems to be an affirmation of life and memories. It imparts a sincere message about the inevitably of passing time and how people must bid farewell to one another at some point. But at the same time, saying goodbye doesn’t break the continuous nature of people’s love and affection for one another.
其实，最初创作《爸爸的时光机》的念头始于某次的泳池边，马良的父亲反复问“你会游泳吗”，而马良一次次地游给父亲看，这一来一去触发了马良对于父亲记忆退化的审视，从而诞生了现在这个故事：讲述了科学家马古几发现自己年迈父亲逐渐失去记忆，因而创造了一台时光机试图帮助父亲重拾美好回忆。剧中的每一次穿梭都是一次奇幻历程，也是对生命和记忆的再次确认，虽时光流逝不可避免，人与人之间终要告别，但这一看似哀伤的告别实则是爱与亲情的延续。
This entire play is meant to be a gift from Maleonn to his father. Maleonn’s family worked in theatre, and his parents had hopes of him becoming a theatre worker. But instead, he paved his own path and went on to pursue his personal interest in creativity and art. Over the years, Maleonn had mentioned working together with his father to create a collaborative theatrical performance several times. But as his father aged, that idea became less and less likely. In 2014, with the support of producer Wang Kaili, Maleonn began to piece together this ambitious project.
这是一部艺术家送给父亲的礼物。出生戏剧世家的马良自幼被父母期许成为一名戏剧工作者，但个人执意走了美术的创作道路。曾与家人笑谈“未来和父亲合作戏剧作品”，但这个愿望也随着父亲的衰老逐渐远去。于是马良在2014年初，在出品人王凯丽的支持下，开始了这个木偶戏剧的创作。
Having never dealt with puppets or created plays before, he worked closely with the production team to fulfill his creative vision. With his keen artistic sense and unrestrained imagination, the entire play came together in a little over two years. Maleonn and the production team created a dozen life-sized puppets; each of these elaborately designed puppets consisted of over 1,200 components to put together. The play’s four main characters are mechanical puppets: Makugee as a child and his middle-aged father, and Makugee as an adult and his elderly father. These mechanical puppets were able to perform a variety of basic movements, and to some extent, perform more complex choreographed movements. Through the team’s meticulous design and engineering, the puppets are dextrous enough to grab ahold of objects and even precisely point. The uniquely designed system they use to control each puppet is state-of-the-art when it comes to puppetry.
从未涉足舞台和木偶的马良在创作过程中，与团队共同揣摩，以敏锐的艺术感受与天马行空的想象力，耗时两年多，带领团队制作出了数十件真人等比大型木偶，每个木偶由1200多个零件组成。全剧中共设有4个主角机甲木偶，分别是小马古几与爸爸、中年马古几与老年爸爸。每个机甲木偶除了正常行走、舞蹈等肢体动作外，设计上更是细致到如手指可抓取物件、灵活指点方向等。其独创的木偶操控体系已是世界一流的操控水平。
“I’ve actually always enjoyed doing tedious and time-consuming tasks. I don’t like shortcuts, and I don’t like complacency. I admit that I’m not deep or an especially intelligent person, and I’m willing to devote my time and passion to do stupid things,” says Maleonn. “I respect those who are able to repeatedly draw tens of thousands of lines on a canvas – I think they’re better people than those who only have a concept and are unable to execute it. Some people try to give cleverly vague answers, but aren’t able to provide any concrete solutions. In my opinion, the only reason that any romance still exists in this heartless world is because of passionate fools.”
“我天生就喜欢做繁琐费力的事情，不喜欢捷径，也不喜欢安定。愿意承认自己是不深刻也不够智慧的人，也愿意付出时间和热情去做蠢事。我尊敬那些在画布上重复画一万道线的人，胜过那些只提出一个玄乎的概念。一个聪明的谜团，却舍不得给出答案的人。在我看来，这无情世界，因为有热情的蠢货，才有些浪漫。”这正是马良与整个创作团队的一份赤诚之心。
