Interview: Michael Leibenluft, Co-director of North Bank Suzhou Creek
Jewish people have had a long and special affinity with Shanghai. In the late '30s and early '40s, about 20,000 Jewish people escaped from a Nazi-occupied Europe to seek refuge in Shanghai. Contemporary Shanghai play North Bank Suzhou Creek (the photo above is a photo of the play in action) reflects the history and stay of the Jews in Shanghai, where they found their lives intertwined with that of the local Chinese and soon, the encroaching Japanese army.
A Chinese "Casablanca," the play centers on a difficult moral dilemma that a Jewish girl faces in saving her father's life and protecting her family in a war-torn Shanghai. A cast of international and local talent presents North Bank Suzhou Creek as a fantastic, musical play integrating popular Klezmer, Hollywood and Chinese melodies from the period. Catch their last performance tonight at TK before they debut in New York next month.
Here, we sit down with co-director Michael Leibenluft from Shanghai Theatre Academy.
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City Weekend: How did you get your start on the play?
Michael Leibenluft: The script was written by William Sun, professor and vice president of Shanghai Theatre Academy but hadn't become a full production yet. So, I brought the playwrights together with the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, which used to be an old synagogue [and a center for Jewish history today]. We collaborated with them to bring this play into full production to share with Shanghai audiences.
What did you want to portray about the Jewish experience in Shanghai?
Although conditions were very poor, Jewish people who fled to Shanghai were met with tolerant or at least ambivalent treatment from the Japanese. Jewish and Chinese citizens of the city bonded in the face of adversity and between friendship and goodwill between their respective communities.
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