Chinese actor Hu Ge (third left), singer and actress Li Yuchun (fourth left), actress Zhang Jingchu (center), actress Xu Qing (fourth right) and Shi Ke (second right) pose at a press conference for the new drama, A Dream Like a Dream, in Beijing, China, 26 November 2012.[Photo/icpress]

Stan Lai's eight-hour play A Dream Like a Dream will run from April 1 to 14. Inspired by several small stories Lai heard in the 1990s and an India trip, the must-see drama weaves several characters' dreams and realities into a seamless structure that echoes Buddhist beliefs about life, death and reincarnation. Lai first put on this epic in Taiwan in 2000, then revived it in 2005 for a Cantonese edition that played in Hong Kong in 2002. As for Wagner's Ring Cycle or Tang Xianzu's Kunqu Opera Peony Pavilion, both of which take days and nights to watch, the audience will sit from afternoon to midnight, with a short supper break. For the event, the theater will be rebuilt to create a custom-designed space for the audience to sit in the center, while actors perform around them.

2 pm-7:30 pm, April 1-14. Poly Theater, No 14 Dongzhimen Nandajie Street, Beijing. 010- 6551-3348, 400-860-0605.