BANGALORE: Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore celebrated the heroics of a warrior princess in Chitrangada. Like many of his other works, it was an ingenious blend of ancient legend and modern times.

Parlours across Europe talked about the feminist message that rocked the stages when Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House was premiered.

The fateful drama of a wilful young aristocrat's seduction of her father's valet, August Strindberg's Miss Julie, one of the greatest classics of modern theatre, was inspired by naturalism and psychology that swept Europe in the late 19th century.

These three classics from India, Norway and Sweden is blending together on a desi backdrop — Cupid's Broken Arrow. With no set stage and an Indian narrative, this theatre production is neither absolutely 'The English' work, nor does it have all its ends tied, making it a smooth dramatic line which tends to reduce characters to loose human puppets. "The characters use Indian English, peppered with Kannada," said its director Prasanna.

"I would never use a language people would not understand. What's the point? Theatre has to be people-oriented and has to entertain the audience and then take them a little ahead," Prasanna said. 2005 is the centennial year of Norway's independence from Sweden and the two countries have decided to celebrate the event with India by bringing together works of three playwrights.

The play is simple, "with just five actors. The three plays that have proved an inspiration for Cupid's Broken Arrow's birth have a metaphor — the construction of a new woman," Prasanna said.

For all three works, so rich has been the influence that each generation has had a different way of interpreting them... from feminist critique to Hegelian allegory to the postmodern school of thought.

Cupid's Broken Arrow will be performed on March 1, 2 and 3 at Rangashankara and will travel to Mysore on March 12 and 13.