Classic drama to hit local stage

Riding on its box office success this March with “A Dream Like a Dream,” Beijing-based Yanghua Shidai Cultural Co. is bringing another epic drama to town.

A Chinese production of “Ghetto,” by Israeli playwright Joshua Sobol, will be staged at Shenzhen Poly Theater this weekend.

A song and dance scene from the Yanghua production of “Ghetto.”Photos by courtesy of Shenzhen Poly Theater

The play about the experiences of the Jews in the Vilna ghetto during the Nazi occupation in World War II so far has had 77 productions staged in 25 countries in more than 20 languages. The story was adapted for the big screen in a 2005 movie directed by Audrius Juzenas.

The play focuses on a Jewish theater in the ghetto and includes historical figures like Jacob Gens, chief of the Jewish police and later head of the ghetto, as characters. It is part of a trilogy of plays about the resistance movement, which also includes “Adam” and “Underground.”

Stage design by Edna Sobol.

“Ghetto” premiered at the Haifa Municipal Theater in Israel and the Freie Volksbuhne, Berlin, in 1984, with folk and jazz singer Esther Ofarim in the female lead as Hayyah.

It was performed in the Olivier Theater at the Royal National Theater, London, in an English-language version by David Lan, based on a translation by Miriam Schlesinger. This 1989 production directed by Nicholas Hytner and designed by Bob Crowley, with Maria Friedman as Hayyah, won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play that year. A production directed by Gedalia Besser opened at the Circle in the Square Theater in New York City as well in 1989.

A play within a play, “Ghetto” tells the story of the Vilnius ghetto through a theater that operated there from 1942 to 1943. Through the multi-faceted response of its characters, the play reveals not only the existential terror and cruelty of the time, but also the tenacity of hope and the creative spirit innate to humans.

This is not a somber play, despite the ever-present threat of extermination. It’s filled with music, dance and even laughter. It incorporates traditional Jewish songs with jazz numbers and familiar classics, such as Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” all performed live on the stage by the actors.

Directed by playwright Sobol himself, the Yanghua production has Edna Sobol, the director’s wife, as stage designer. Having designed five previous productions, Edna Sobol still finds the work challenging. As the theaters in China are much bigger than those she had worked with elsewhere, she has to adapt in many ways to make good use of the stage. “It’s like working on a new play,” she said.

This production, which premiered in Beijing last month, casts Anais Martane, a French actress with Jewish ancestry, in the lead as Hayyah. The cast also includes veteran dramatic actors Sun Qiang and Feng Xianzhen and young idol Yan Nan.

Anais Martane (front left) in the lead as Hayyah.

Jian Liren, a professor at the Taiwan University of Arts, who also designed the lighting for Stan Lai’s “A Dream Like a Dream,” is behind the lighting for “Ghetto.” Chinese composer Hu Shuai serves as music director and award-winning Israeli artist Noa Shadur is the choreographer of the play.

With a 15-minute intermission, the three-hour show promises a night of thoughtful entertainment punctuated by songs and dances, which will have the audiences resonate with the fate of the characters and ask soul-searching questions such as, “Can we forgive those who err in an evil surrounding?” and, “What’s the value of art in an inevitable march towards death?”

Tickets: 180-880 yuan

Time: 8 p.m., Dec. 29-30

Venue: Shenzhen Poly Theater, intersection of Wenxin Road 5 and Houhaibin Road, Nanshan District (南山区后海滨路与文心五路交界处深圳保利剧院)

Metro: Line 2 or 11 to Houhai Station(后海站), Exit E