CREATURE

The play’s history in the country is an interesting one. “The Usurper,” one of its earliest Chinese adaptations, hit the Shanghai stage in 1916 and contained thinly veiled jabs at Yuan Shikai, a warlord who had crowned himself emperor the year before. Decades later, in 1944, the tale reappeared as “Wang Deming,” which was set amid the ongoing violence of World War II. Adapted into a film in 1945 — just four months before Japan’s ultimate surrender — “Wang Deming” was both a call to arms and a way of reassuring audiences that no ill deeds go unpunished.

According to production director Tiffany Zhang, who helped bring “Sleep No More” to Shanghai two years ago, the show’s directors and production team were nervous about how supposedly shy, cautious Chinese audiences would respond to a play that asked them to stop being passive receptors of a story and instead play an active role. Apparently, they needn’t have worried. “[Chinese audiences] need interaction,” Zhang said. “They want interaction.”