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.

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.