Joyce's grandson tries to keep explicit Molly Bloom off the stage

The grandson of James Joyce is trying to ban a sexually explicit musical production based on Joyce's best-known novel from being staged at the Edinburgh Festival.

The grandson of James Joyce is trying to ban a sexually explicit musical production based on Joyce's best-known novel from being staged at the Edinburgh Festival.

Stephen J Joyce, who is responsible for his grandfather's estate, said the play, a musical version of Molly Bloom's soliloquy at the end of Ulysses, turned the "masterful" works of Ulysses into a "circus act".

He has demanded that the Fringe organisers pull the cabaret show but they have refused, saying they cannot interfere with a perfectly legal production.

Molly Bloom, A Musical Dream, which is due to open next week, features Anna Zapparoli lying on top of a grand piano that serves as her bed and relating her many and scandalous adventures.

Her reminiscences include "Song of the Big Hole", "Rap of Spunk", "Rap of Hip Bones" and "Song of Sucking", in what is an adults-only production.

Mr Joyce said he objected to the monologue being used out of context and said it was not written to be performed but as the concluding part of a novel.

In a letter to Ms Zapparoli, Mr Joyce said: "We have ... come to the conclusion that you propose to treat the Molly Bloom Monologue as if it were a circus act or a jazz element in a jam session. This was clearly not the intention of the author. Therefore we must refuse you permission."

However, Mr Joyce has no legal grounds to demand that the play be pulled and the producers are adamant that it will go ahead.

Joyce died in 1941 and his works passed out of copyright 50 years later. Since 1991 anyone wishing to use his work has to write to the executors of the estate to notify them and discuss a suitable royalty fee.

Ms Zapparoli, who has offered to sing the piece for Mr Joyce at his home in Paris, said she had thoroughly checked the legal position.

"After I wrote to Mr Joyce I discovered we were legally in the clear if we went ahead with the production," she said. "Then this week the whole thing exploded around us. Of course we would much prefer it if Stephen Joyce came along and watched the show without any scorn and made up his own mind to either like it or loathe it."

A spokesman for the Fringe said it did not have the power to cancel the show. "We are not a programming festival so we can't cancel it. This is one of the biggest platforms for free speech and it would be going against the spirit of it if we cancelled. We understand that the production is perfectly legal and the permission of the Joyce estate is not needed so there is nothing we can, or would, do."