Veteran theater director Yi Liming bought a copy of Ulysses several years ago. He couldn't finish reading Irish writer James Joyce's classic novel because it was too hard to understand.

However, during his trip to the Edinburgh International Festival in 2013, Yi saw a poster for the Ulysses theater production directed by Andy Arnold, creative director of Tron Theater in Scotland.

Out of curiosity, Yi bought a ticket, and over the next two hours he was entranced. After the show, Yi opened the novel again and finally finished reading it.

"It is the magic of theater. The director interprets the novel onstage, which is an easy way for the audience to learn the essence of the book," says Yi.

As the artistic director of Beijing-based Chan Drama, Yi decided to bring Arnold's production to Beijing, hoping more audiences in China would better understand the novel like he did.

Yi's small wish, however, turned out to be a big event as part of the 2015 UK-China Year of Cultural Exchange. At a news conference in Beijing late last month, Yi revealed that seven works by directors from the two countries will be staged in Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan of Shandong province and Hangzhou of Zhejiang province through June, with a total of 25 performances.

Besides Ulysses, two collaborations between British directors and Chinese actors were also staged. A Journey through James Joyce, which is directed by Arnold with multiple sources of Joyce's own writings, tells the literary giant's life in self-exile in Trieste. Beckett en Bref, which is directed by Gerry Mulgrew, presents for the first time a series of Irish avant-garde novelist Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) shorts on Chinese stage.

"The fundamentals of stage dramas exist in literature as well," says Yi, who founded Chan Drama in 2008 and is also a veteran set designer. Yi has previously worked on foreign and Chinese classics such as Hamlet and Tea House. "We want to bring those great writers and their works closer to Chinese audiences."

Director Arnold says that he wanted to direct Irish playwright Dermot Bolger's 1994 version of Ulysses, an act of love for him.

"Ulysses is special in my heart. Joyce's novel had never been put on any stage before. The novel has tragedy, humor, beauty of language and strong characters, which are great elements for theater," Arnold says.

Three Chinese plays directed by Yi will share the stage during the event from April to August. The Seven Sages, with a set designed by renowned architect Zhang Yonghe, explores various reactions to extreme circumstances and will be displayed in a gallery space in Beijing. The Imperial Express, a multiple-act play, recounts a journey of Dowager Empress Cixi, one of the most powerful and controversial female figures in Chinese history, to Northeast China, known as Manchuria back then, on a train purchased from Britain. Waiting for Ancestors - a Chinese reaction to Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot - was written by Zeng Yi, his classmate at Central Academy of Drama. The play explores the crisis of the Chinese literary scene in modern society.

Working with Chinese conductor Tang Muhai, Yi will also stage Turn of the Screw, an English chamber opera by Benjamin Britten.

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 04/14/2015 page10)