Reviewed by:

• The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window by Lorraine Hansberry
• Beth Wynstra

In Act Two of Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Mavis Parodus Bryson (Miriam Silverman) reveals to her brother-in-law Sidney (Oscar Isaac) that her marriage has been rocked by infidelity. While Sidney is shocked at the news, Mavis calmly explains that her husband Fred has had a lover for years, and that this lover has recently given birth to Fred’s baby. Sidney has always seen the marriage of Mavis and Fred as solid, albeit (in his Bohemian estimation) provincial and boring, and so he listens incredulously. Mavis continues: “There are no squares, Sidney. Believe me when I tell you, everybody is his own hipster.” This line was met with uproarious laughter during the production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The term “hipster” has certainly taken on new connotations since the original 1964 production of Hansberry’s play, and the neighborhood surrounding BAM has been heralded in recent years as “hipster” central. Yet the timeless idea at the heart of Mavis’ line—namely, that things are not always what they seem and people are far more nuanced than they might initially appear—is a significant throughline of the play. Hansberry’s focus is on the aftermath of such discoveries, how one either forges ahead with new empathy or succumbs tragically to hard truths. While scholars have long separated Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun from the later and stylistically different The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, this element of resiliency, and the strength needed to uphold it, is a shared concern in both plays. The latter work, which Hansberry was still editing days before her premature death from cancer, has not received the attention and acclaim that A Raisin in the Sun has enjoyed. However, the compelling performances by the cast in the BAM production, along with thoughtful direction by Anne Kauffman and exquisite costume and set design by Brenda Abbandandolo and dots respectively, bolstered a timely and ambitious play worthy of reevaluation.

The play centers on Sidney Brustein and his wife Iris (Rachel Brosnahan), who live in 1964 Greenwich Village. The play opens with Sidney and his friend Alton Scales (Julian De Niro) hauling racks of bar glasses into the Brustein apartment. The glasses are left over from Walden Pond, a failed jazz club that Sidney owned. As the men enter the apartment, Sidney gives Alton verbal edits on an article Alton has written for a newspaper that Sidney now owns. Oscar Isaac’s Sidney was constantly in motion; Sidney is one to jump from job to job, from cause to [End Page 371] cause, and Isaac was never without intensity and enthusiasm. Brosnahan’s Iris literally bumped into the glasses when she entered the couple’s apartment, weary from her job “slinging hash” at a diner. When she informed Sidney that “We’re not going to have the residue of your failures in the living room,” Brosnahan’s tone and delivery revealed that her husband’s unsuccessful ventures had been a repeated theme in their marital arguments. Similarly, the barbs that Sidney hurled about Iris’ stagnant acting career indicated that beneath all the sexual chemistry in this relationship, there were deep-seated frustrations, jealousies, and indignations. Brosnahan and Isaac walked this line of love and animosity nimbly. Just as tensions between the couple flared up, so, too, did their apparent desire to make up and make out. Both actors navigated their characters’ multifaceted emotional worlds with aplomb: Isaac performing the public progressivism and private patriarchalism of Sidney, and Brosnahan performing the feminist, fiery ambition and quiet hurt of Iris. Ultimately, Sidney’s devotion to a new cause, namely the political campaign of friend Wally O’Hara, opens up a serious rift in the Brustein marriage. Sidney’s dedication to Wally and his campaign promises to “clean up community politics” and “wipe out bossism” grows, as does the sign for Wally in the Brusteins...

审阅者：

• 西德尼·布鲁斯坦 (Sidney Brustein) 窗户上的标志，洛林·汉斯伯里 (Lorraine Hansberry)
• 贝丝·温斯特拉

在洛林·汉斯伯里的《西德尼·布鲁斯坦窗户上的标志》第二幕中，梅维斯·帕罗德斯·布赖森（米里亚姆·西尔弗曼饰）向她的姐夫西德尼（奥斯卡·伊萨克饰）透露，她的婚姻因不忠而受到动摇。当西德尼对这个消息感到震惊时，梅维斯平静地解释说，她的丈夫弗雷德已经有一个情人多年了，而这个情人最近刚刚生下了弗雷德的孩子。西德尼一直认为梅维斯和弗雷德的婚姻是稳固的，尽管（在他的波西米亚人看来）地方性和无聊，所以他难以置信地听着。梅维斯继续说道：“西德尼，没有方格。相信我，每个人都是他自己的潮人。” 在布鲁克林音乐学院 (BAM)制作西德尼·布鲁斯坦 (Sidney Brustein) 的《窗户》中的《The Sign》期间，这句台词引起了哄堂大笑。自 1964 年汉斯伯里的戏剧首次上演以来，“潮人”一词无疑有了新的含义，而 BAM 周围的社区近年来也被誉为“潮人”中心。然而，梅维斯台词的核心理念是永恒的，即事物并不总是表面上看起来的那样，人们比他们最初看起来的要微妙得多，这是该剧的一条重要主线。汉斯伯里的重点是这些发现的后果，一个人如何带着新的同理心继续前进，或者悲惨地屈服于残酷的事实。虽然学者们长期以来一直将汉斯伯里的《阳光下的葡萄干》与后来风格不同的西德尼·布鲁斯坦的《窗中的标志》区分开来，但这种弹性元素以及维持它所需的力量是两部剧作共同关注的问题。汉斯伯里在因癌症过早去世前几天仍在编辑后者的作品，但它并没有像《阳光下的葡萄干》那样受到关注和赞誉。然而，BAM 制作中演员们引人入胜的表演，加上安妮·考夫曼深思熟虑的导演，以及布伦达·阿班丹多洛和圆点分别的精美服装和布景设计，支撑了一部值得重新评估的及时且雄心勃勃的戏剧。

该剧以住在 1964 年格林威治村的西德尼·布鲁斯坦 (Sidney Brustein) 和他的妻子艾丽丝 (雷切尔·布罗斯纳汉饰) 为中心。该剧以西德尼和他的朋友奥尔顿·斯凯尔斯（朱利安·德尼罗饰）拖着成架的酒吧酒杯进入布鲁斯坦的公寓开始。这些眼镜是瓦尔登湖 (Walden Pond) 留下的，这是悉尼拥有的一家失败的爵士俱乐部。当这些人进入公寓时，西德尼向奥尔顿口头编辑了奥尔顿为西德尼现在拥有的一家报纸撰写的一篇文章。奥斯卡·伊萨克饰演的西德尼一直在运动；西德尼是一个从一个工作跳到另一个工作、从一个事业跳到另一个事业的人，而艾萨克则从来没有缺乏强度和热情。布罗斯纳汉饰演的艾里斯在进入这对夫妇的公寓时，真的撞到了眼镜，她厌倦了在餐馆“扔哈希”的工作。当她告诉西德尼“我们不会在客厅里留下你失败的痕迹”时，布罗斯纳汉的语气和表达方式表明，她丈夫的失败冒险一直是他们婚姻争论中反复出现的主题。同样，西德尼对艾里斯停滞不前的演艺事业的讽刺表明，在这段关系中所有的性化学反应之下，存在着根深蒂固的挫败感、嫉妒和愤慨。布罗斯纳汉和艾萨克灵活地走在这条爱与恨的路线上。随着这对夫妇之间的紧张关系加剧，他们明显想要和解和亲热的愿望也随之加剧。两位演员都沉着地驾驭着各自角色的多面情感世界：艾萨克扮演西德尼的公共进步主义和私人父权主义，布罗斯纳汉扮演艾里斯的女权主义、炽热的野心和安静的伤害。最终，西德尼致力于一项新事业，即朋友沃利·奥哈拉的政治竞选，这在布鲁斯坦的婚姻中造成了严重的裂痕。西德尼对沃利及其竞选承诺“清理社区政治”和“消灭老板主义”的奉献精神与日俱增，布鲁斯坦家族中支持沃利的标志也在增长……