Inception, Christopher Nolan's 2010 film, deftly blended the worlds of reality and dream, raising the question of what is real and unreal. Nolan is not alone in bringing up this concept. Thousands years ago in China, an influential philosopher named Zhuang Zhou raised a similar question after he dreamed that he had transformed into a butterfly: "Am I a person who dreamed of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly who dreamed of being human?"

It's an interesting question that keeps people, especially artists looking for answers.

Starting this year, with Taiwan playwright and threater director Stan Lai's stage play A Dream like a Dream, people in China will be able to explore the question in a new way.

Stories within stories

Though new to most mainland theatergoers, A Dream like a Dream was first staged in 2000, starting in Taiwan then Hong Kong.

 The events depicted span about a century, and so there is ample room for more than one story; in fact, there are stories inside stories.

The play begins like this: On her first day working at a hospital, a young female doctor is full of ambition to heal the wounded and rescue the dying. However, four out of five patients assigned to her die on the same day, making her wonder whether her job is meaningful. She is told that even if she cannot save a person's life, she can at least release their mental pain by being a good listener, giving them a chance to pour out their grief. So, she sits with the only patient left, and in the patient's story she discovers more hidden stories.

"The scenes travel from Taipei to Paris, to Normandy and to Shanghai. There is someone having a dream, in which another person is telling a story. And in the story, a person is dreaming," Zhang Yue, a CCTV hostess, introduced at last week's press conference. "It involves life and death, loneliness, freedom, passion and fate."

She also said that most of the characters will have two or more performers playing them, and often performers of the same character act simultaneously.

A personal story

The concept of the play came to Lai in 1999 while on a trip to Bodh Gaya, a religious site in India believed to be the place where Gautama Buddha reached enlightenment. As Lai was sitting under a bodhi tree and looking at people walking by in front of him, an idea struck him.

"[He felt] the people coming from different places of the world, of different skin colors and in different nationalities… all had their own stories, which were reflected in their faces," Ding Nai-Chu, Lai's wife and managing director of Performance Workshop Theatre in Taiwan, said. "He suddenly thought it might be a good idea to put the audience in the center of a theater and have the performers act around them. And the stories go from one person to another."

After living and working with Lai for 30 years, Ding thinks A Dream like a Dream is a very special play compared with his other works: Many people take this as Lai's greatest work.

"It is the work that most directly expresses his own understanding about life and belief," Ding said.

The couple both believe in Buddhism, but Ding said Lai used to separate his religious beliefs from his works, thinking they are two different things. Now, neither thinks of Buddhism as a religion, but more like an attitude, searching for the beginning, ending and meaning of life.

Being innovative

To place the audience in the center of the play, the typical theater must be redesigned, and the most interesting thing is that every member of the audience will sit in a chair that can spin.

"[Such impact to audiences] is stronger than what they can get from a movie," Tao Qingmei, drama critic and executive vice editor of Beijing Culture Review magazine, told Global Times in a phone interview.

In 2002, when Lai was launching a workshop for students in The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, Tao watched a two-hour segment of A Dream like a Dream. "Now, movies are looking for 3D and IMAX technology, but [Lai's way] is more like a panorama. Every place can be a space for performing," she added.

Also, with its multiple interrelated stories, A Dream like a Dream lasts for eight hours - four times that of a typical play - and although such length is not unprecedented (Richard Wagner's (1813-83) The Ring of the Nibelung is about 15 hours long.), such a long drama raises the question whether it will make the audience too tired to enjoy.

"Time does not matter. What matters is whether within this time the play can give you enough exciting things and bring you along," Tao said.

For the new mainland version of A Dream like a Dream, many of the characters will be played by mainland actors and actresses like Hu Ge, Zhao Lixin, Xu Qing, Zhang Jingchu and Li Yuchun, a combination of veterans and newcomers.

 Some wonder if Lai is using too many screen stars with big names but little stage experience. But Lai belays those fears having once said in an interview with website tudou.com that he does not think there is a clear boundary between screen actors and stage actors, and he knows how to best use them.