Ulysses gains clarity on the stage

The play tells the whole story of the novel but only uses about one-tenth of the dialogues in the original because some parts work better theatrically than others.

"The essence with all Joyce's works is that his language is written to be heard. You can't make sense of some of his writings, but when you speak it, it makes perfect sense because the sounds of language are what you will focus on," says Arnold, who has read the book two or three times.

He broke up the final episode of the book and put it in the whole play. The episode is about Molly Bloom's psychological descriptions when she lies in bed next to her husband Leopold Bloom. It's one of the most famous parts of modernist literature, due to its stream-of-consciousness technique and lack of punctuation.

"What makes good theater is the beauty of language, strong characters and great moments in life, such as tragedy and humor. All that is in the book," Arnold says.

When Yi and his team went to the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival in August 2013, they were attracted by a poster of Ulysses directed by Arnold and bought tickets to watch it out of curiosity.

"I was greatly impressed by the skillful ways to demonstrate such deep thoughts onstage. It's an excellent work and should be introduced to China," Yi says.

This time, Arnold uses Molly Bloom on her bed in the poster.

"Had we had a poster image of James Joyce in the dark streets of Dublin, that would put many people off," he says, jokingly.

It's Arnold's first time working with Chinese performers, and he's found it very enjoyable.