The new Chinese-language play, The Shawshank Redemption, features an all-Western cast of Mandarin speakers, Chen Nan reports. 

The Shawshank Redemption, a new Chinese stage adaptation of the 1982 Stephen King novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, is now playing in China, starting with its Shenzhen premiere on Jan 12, followed by shows in Shanghai and Beijing. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

It has been 30 years since the premiere of the movie, The Shawshank Redemption.

The 1994 Hollywood film — written and directed by Frank Darabont and based on the Stephen King novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption — tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spends 19 years wrongly imprisoned in Shawshank State Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, Red, who has spent most of his life in the prison and is capable of smuggling in anything from the outside world.

Veteran Chinese actor-director Zhang Guoli says the film has always been one of his favorites.

"There are two scenes that touch me most," Zhang says.

"One is when Andy locks himself in the prison's office in an act of defiance against prison authorities and plays a piece of music from Mozart's opera, The Marriage of Figaro, over the loudspeakers. The other is the scene when Brooks Hatlen carves 'Brooks was here' into a wooden beam in his apartment and hangs himself."

Now, a Chinese-language stage adaptation of the timeless story, also titled The Shawshank Redemption, is holding its first round of performances in China, starting with its premiere in Shenzhen, where three shows were held from Jan 12 to 14. It continues its tour in Shanghai from Jan 18 to 21, followed by a presentation in Beijing from Jan 25 to 28. Its tour will extend to over 30 shows this year.

Chinese veteran actor-director Zhang Guoli works with 11 foreign cast members from eight countries in the play. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Directed by Zhang, the Chinese play features 11 actors from eight countries — an all-Western cast performing in Chinese, headlined by the narrator, Red, played by Canadian Mark Rowswell, who's better known among Chinese audiences by his Chinese name, Da Shan. James Clarke plays the role of Dufresne.

The Chinese version of The Shawshank Redemption is based on the stage adaptation of the original Stephen King story by Owen O'Neill and David Johns in 2009.

"Under the horrific circumstances — despair, distrust, abuse — there are love, resilience and friendship between Andy and Red, and strength coming from hope and the pursuit of freedom. We try to translate the story into a unique cultural context for Chinese audiences," says Zhang.

Zhang once worked with Tim Robbins — the award-winning actor who starred as Dufresne in the 1994 movie. In 2011, the two were cast in Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's famine-themed epic film, 1942.

"I was so excited when I heard from Guoli that he is adapting the movie into a Chinese-language play with a full foreign cast speaking Mandarin. This is such a huge undertaking," Robbins says in his letter to the Chinese audience.

"I know The Shawshank Redemption has made an impact on generations of people, and I am so impressed that Guoli is going to bring it to the Chinese theaters and present it to a wider audience in China. Even if the play is in Mandarin, I gotta say — from all us actors across the world — that when it comes to performing, language doesn't stand in the way of reaching people's hearts."

Robbins also recounts his last visit to Beijing, nearly a decade ago, with a performance troupe staging A Midsummer Night's Dream.

"I am so delighted that my reconnection with Guoli after 10 years is through this story that we both have passion for."

Scenes from the performance, which includes Canadian actor Mark Rowswell as Red, and Australian James Clarke as Andy. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Zhang says: "It was very difficult for us to bring these actors together, just like looking for a needle in a haystack. They not only act very well, but also speak Mandarin just like native speakers, which took a great deal of training."

According to Yao Yi, CEO of the Chinese play's coproduction company, Longma Entertainment, which was cofounded by veteran scriptwriters Zou Jingzhi, Liu Heng and Wan Fang in 2008, the idea of adapting the classic work into a Chinese stage production started several years ago, but the plan was postponed due to the pandemic.

"We had never produced a Chinese-language play featuring an all-foreign cast, which was a bold and challenging idea," Yao says.

"We had a team from the Beijing Language and Culture University provide language training to the actors. Zhang (Guoli) not only served as the director of the play but also coached performances."

Rowswell was approached by the production company and was intrigued by the role of Red, who acts and narrates throughout the Chinese play. Rowswell became a household name in China after he achieved overnight fame by performing on CCTV's Spring Festival gala — one of the most-watched TV shows in the country — in 1988. Known as the first foreigner ever to master the Chinese traditional comedic performance art of xiangsheng, or cross-talk, Rowswell has been performing onstage for 35 years in many different formats.

"Our director, Zhang Guoli, explained that he chose me for this role specifically due to my training in xiangsheng, as well as the work I've done in recent years with narrating classical Chinese poetry, as Red is also the narrator of The Shawshank Redemption story, frequently speaking directly to the audience. That's exactly the kind of thing I am most familiar and comfortable with," says Rowswell.

He has mainly been producing his own show, Dashan & Friends, in recent years, and has been involved in almost every aspect, including writing, directing and acting.

Scenes from the performance, which includes Canadian actor Mark Rowswell as Red, and Australian James Clarke as Andy. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Clarke, who plays the role of Dufresne in the Chinese stage production, was contacted by the production company Longma Entertainment through social media. When he was told about the Chinese play The Shawshank Redemption, Clarke thought it was "a scam".He didn't believe it until he saw a short video of Zhang and Rowswell rehearsing.

"I slapped myself, and then went through the messages on my social media for Longma Entertainment. I thought that I had missed the opportunity, and I sent an apology for thinking they were a scam, and that I was sorry to have missed out. The message came back, asking if I was still interested, and they offered me the lead role of Andy Dufresne," recalls Clarke.

"I was the last member of the cast to join and begin rehearsals. I have been trained in acting and know that theater is one of the most challenging forms of art. I saw it as an opportunity to stretch myself professionally as an actor," says Clarke, who lives in Tianjin and has been doing business in China since 2009.

He is the president of the Australia China Business Council.

"I had three days to try and catch up to where the rest of the crew were up to, which meant reciting my lines until late at night at airports and on planes. On the flight to Beijing, Mandarin-speaking passengers threw strange looks when they heard me reciting lines, such as 'I didn't murder my wife! I'm innocent!'"

American actor Matt William Knowles plays the role of Hadley, who is the chief guard of the prison.

"The Shawshank Redemption is a story that is full of hope. The message crosses cultures and breaks boundaries," says Knowles, who has featured in Chinese films and TV series.

In 2009, after a crushing knee injury that ended his professional American football dreams, Knowles moved to China to volunteer to teach English in the mountains of Guizhou province. After spending two years in Guizhou, he learned some Chinese, received a Chinese government scholarship and became the first non-Asian to study acting at the Beijing Film Academy.

"The most challenging part for me is the Chinese lines. Zhang (Guoli) has extremely high expectations for our fluency, and we have been working hard to make Hadley sound as local as possible," he says.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn