The Beijing city government has banned a Chinese production of a play by one of Israel's most famous authors, angering the cast and the Israeli Embassy.
Prostitute from Ohio by Chanoch Levin - rendered into Chinese as The Girl from Ohio - opened last Friday and was scheduled to run for two weeks. The Israeli Embassy had bought 200 tickets for a show on Tuesday.
However, the play only ran for four nights before it was stopped, a spokeswoman for the theatre said. 'We do not know the reason for the cancellation and whether it will resume,' she said.
The Israeli Embassy said it was very regrettable that the play had been censored.
'Levin is one of the most famous Israeli playwrights, whose work has been staged all over the world. We are very sorry that Chinese were not able to see them.'
Chinese sources said the ban did not appear to be aimed against Israel, but resulted from a complaint by an influential person angered by what they had seen in the play.
