Kiss of the Spider Woman is ferocious from the first scene. We’re immediately dropped into a brutal prison setting, but there also appears to be a classic movie star in jail with us and window-dresser-turned-cellmate Molina: Aurora, reprising her role as the dangerous Spider Woman (played by Anna-Jane Casey (West End’s Cabaret, Billy Elliot), who’s clearly having a delicious time – tantalisingly sassy, with a wicked curl in the corner of her wide smile. The slightest side eye to the audience and flick of the head draws everyone in, all at risk of her fatal kiss). Disgusting conditions, sounds of torture, sexual violence, bullying, blackmail and regular poisonings are interspersed with dazzling Latin showgirl numbers by Aurora; sparkling relief from Molina’s imagination.
Argentinian author Manuel Puig’s 1976 postmodern novel is having a moment. Kiss of the Spider Woman’s latest film adaptation, starring Jennifer Lopez, was released in UK cinemas last month – directed by Dreamgirls’ and Chicago’s Bill Condon – and, more pressingly, it’s also now on stage at Bristol Old Vic.
This isn’t the first time that lead characters Molina, who’s been condemned to jail for his sexuality, and political prisoner Valentin have been deftly plucked from Puig’s pages; there was an earlier film released in 1985, and the original Broadway production won seven Tony Awards – no less – including Best Musical and Best Original Score. That’s not surprising, seeing as song writing royalty beams from its core: creators of Cabaret and Chicago Kander and Ebb, who are also behind this production, are clearly fans of dark, cell-based musicals (there’s even some jail bar choreography that’ll remind you of Chicago’s Cell Block Tango), and know how to extract profound, heart-felt melodies from the murkiest corners of characters’ psyches.
Paul Foster’s revival of this lauded stage show does justice to the key themes of exploring Queer identities and political liberation that thread their way through the original work – topics that are as much in the zeitgeist of modern Bristol as they were to the novel’s first readers in the ‘70s. Kiss of the Spider Woman follows Molina and Valentin’s unlikely friendship that grows into a perilously deep connection from the despair of a rotten cell, fuelled by glamorous and seductive fantasies conjured by Molina that provide escapism for the pair – but teeter on the edge of tragedy.
I think some background knowledge of the original material is useful here to fully grasp the glorious depths of the story, and to understand Aurora/Spider Woman’s multitudes as a nuanced symbolic device, which are impossible to fully cram into the show’s two-and-a-half hours. The quick script is packed with wit, but you have to lean in to catch the quips, which glint within the suffocating prison backdrop – much like Molina himself. Fabian Soto Pacheco (Dear Evan Hansen, Luciernaga Producciónes, Teatro Auditorio Nacional, Costa Rica; Guys & Dolls, Frinton Summer Theatre) shines as the kind-hearted, fabulous and at-once strong yet sensitive Molina, illuminated by lighting the entire time, a beacon of hope among the squalid setting. George Blagden (BBC’s Versailles, Netflix’s Black Mirror) embraces the tortured, torn revolutionary Valentin, taking great care with one of the show’s most vulnerable moments when he’s rendered helpless and needs personal care; you could hear a pin drop.
The shorter, second half is action-packed, and before you know it, you realise that Molina’s imaginary, movie-esque multiverse has become less of a form of escapism and expression of Queer identity, and is becoming choked by the Spider Woman’s gossamer strands. Her presence grows monstrous as the lines between fiction and reality blur, with extreme daily suffering in prison forming a pressure cooker. Molina ends up trapped in the ever-sticky web of love and obsession, and discovers how cataclysmically we can sacrifice ourselves for someone else. Will he finally succumb to the Spider Woman’s kiss of death?
Kiss of the Spider Woman is on at Bristol Old Vic until 16 May – book tickets online
