The despotic Empress Dowager Cixi, the inept Emperor Guangxu, the flattering eunuch Li Lianying and the treacherous minister Rong Lu - all these are familiar figures of the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

But playwright He Jiping gives them a new twist in her latest Peking Opera production, Twilight of the Forbidden City.

"I am a woman. I need someone to cherish and love me," sings Cixi to her lover Rong Lu in the production that tells the story of Deling, a girl born into Chinese nobility, but educated in the West, who is chosen to be a lady-in-waiting for Cixi. Deling is worldly wise and her outgoing personality stands in sharp contrast to the depressing stiffness of the Forbidden City.

Vastly different in education, status, and age, the sparks that fly between Deling and the Empress Dowager as they lock horns, make for most of the plot in the opera. Deling's sudden entrance into the royal household naturally triggers doubts and jealousies, but she finally wins over both Cixi and the Emperor Guangxu, and even influences the implementation of the reform-minded emperor's policies.

"I have made all the characters more in tune with the times. The plot delves into the play of emotions between married couples, between lovers and between mother and son. You can imagine how interesting it is when Cixi talks about her true emotions," says He, who is well-known to Beijing audiences through her widely acclaimed drama Top Restaurant (1988) produced by Beijing People's Art Theater.

For example, when the Empress Dowager hesitates to express her feelings for her lover, Deling convinces her that "love is the most noble and open emotion".

He's Peking Opera adaptation is based on her own play, Deling and Cixi, which she wrote in the early 1990s after moving from Beijing to Hong Kong. It was a big hit when it premiered in Hong Kong in 1998.

Explaining that the main theme of Twilight of the Forbidden City is the clash of cultures - Eastern, as represented by Cixi and Western, as represented by Deling - He says: "After living in Hong Kong for so many years, I have a better understanding of Hong Kong as well as the conflicts and fusions of Chinese and Western culture there.

"This is also a topic that resonates with contemporary China."

Presenting an original Hong Kong drama as a Peking Opera leads to unique scenarios. For example, a qingyi actress (young female character in Peking Opera) sings in English and French.

But Zhou Jing, a famous qingyi actress who stars as Deling in the opera, dismisses the challenges this poses. "It is always possible to work out a compromise between different ideas," she says.

"Everything is going along smoothly," adds Mao Junhui, director of Twilight of the Forbidden City.

As a Hong Kong director educated in the United States, Mao has always been interested in Peking Opera and is confident of presenting his characters in a new light.

"In traditional Peking Opera, the characters are usually all good or all bad. But I want to emphasize the shades of gray; they cannot be easily judged as right or wrong."

Mao admits, though, that presenting these complexities of human behavior can lead to conflicts with the traditional rules and forms of Peking Opera.

So with all these fresh elements, can the production still be called a Peking Opera? He's response is unambiguous.

"We have put in many new things but it is still a pure Peking Opera containing nearly 200 lines of melodious arias. In the event of any conflict, we stayed with the rules of Peking Opera."

Mao agrees, saying: "The new elements are there only because they offer the best way to present the story. I don't see it as a gimmick."

But adaptations that combine different art forms always run the risk of losing their audience. To this, Zhou, the actress, says: "We have retained a number of the traditional formsPeople should not judge this by the standards of traditional Peking Opera for there has never before been a character like Deling in this opera tradition."

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