Stage Adaptation of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION Opens in China

A stage adaptation of the film The Shawshank Redemption is now playing in China! According to Variety, the production opened in Shenzhen on January 4, and will head to Shanghai and Beijing next. 

Directed by Zhang Guoli, the cast includes Canadian actor Mark Rowswell as Red, Beijing-born, U.S. actor Andy Friend as Greg Stammas, Shawn Patrick Moore and Matt William Knowles as Rooster and Hadle respectively, and Australia’s James Clarke as the hero Andy.

The significance of this production comes from the fact that the film was banned in China in 2012. The film was played as the closing title of the 2005 edition of the Shanghai International Film Festival. But, after blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest, resulting in a U.S.-China diplomatic incident, online searches for “Shawshank” were blocked on the Chinese internet and social media in 2012.

The story reports that the production has been adapted from its English version into Chinese, and includes Chinese cultural ideas and phrases throughout to localize the story for the Chinese audience.

This adaptation is co-produced by the China Dream Live Entertainment and Longma Entertainment. The production will run in Shenzhen from Jan. 12-14, before touring to Shanghai (Jan. 18-21) and Beijing (Jan. 25-28).

Read the original story on Variety.

About The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American prison drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, contraband smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), and becomes instrumental in a money laundering operation led by the prison warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, and James Whitmore appear in supporting roles.

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