Taiwan playwright and theater director Stan Lai will stage a new version of his epic “A Dream Like a Dream” for a tour of Asian cities that will commence* in Beijing in April 2013.

The play, which debuted in Taipei in 2000, lasts about eight hours, as actors and actresses continuously circle the audience who are seated on a stage. There are about 100 characters in the epic.

Lai said he had a burst of inspiration for the play when he saw Buddhists circling the Bodhi Tree during a trip to India in 1999.

The new version will debut at Beijing’s Poly Theater, and is scheduled to be performed in Taipei in August 2013 and in Singapore in February 2014.

(SD-Agencies)