A Chinese stage adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption premieres in Shenzhen, and Tim Robbins, star of the 1994 movie, sends his congratulations
- ‘Anything is possible as long as you have hope,’ says Zhang Guoli, director of stage version of The Shawshank Redemption, echoing a theme of film it’s based on
- Tim Robbins, who played the lead character in the film, congratulates Zhang on the production, which uses an all-Western cast of actors fluent in Mandarin
A Chinese-language stage adaptation of the 1994 Hollywood film The Shawshank Redemption will premiere in Shenzhen, China, on January 12 with an all- Western cast who speak fluent Mandarin.
Spearheading the unusual production, which involves actors from Australia, Canada, Finland, the United States, Italy, Russia, Argentina and France, is Chinese actor and director Zhang Guoli.
“This has been a very challenging project,” Zhang says. “We drew spiritual strength from the original story, a strength enhanced by our mutual love of the Chinese language. The experience has made me firmly believe that anything is possible as long as you have hope.”
Having an all-Western cast for a story set in the United States makes sense, says the show’s producer, Yao Yi, the general manager of Longma Entertainment, based in Beijing. “Why not? Foreign actors are performing the story from their own culture using Chinese language,” she says.
I speak for many actors and actresses from around the world that performing arts have no boundaries. In this sense we speak the same language
Special efforts were made to ensure the Mandarin dialogue is delivered perfectly, says Australian-born James Clarke, who plays the lead character, Andy Dufresne. The cast were only allowed to talk to each other in Mandarin. Anyone caught speaking English would be fined 20 yuan (US$3) per word.