Odd couple

Improv Jones' stirring Spider Woman

by Bill Rodriguez

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Written by Manuel Puig. Directed by Christa Crewsdon. With Russell Kellogg and Luis Astudillo. Presented by Improv Jones at Perishable Theatre through January 26.

It shouldn't be surprising that Manuel Puig's play Kiss of the Spider Woman is as engrossing as the film adaptation. Although it is confined to prison cell exchanges between two men instead of being opened up to the wider world, its theatrical focus is as precise and intense as a snapshot of an assassination attempt.

Improv Jones, the improvisational comedy troupe, is staging the drama at Perishable Theatre, where they usually perform their impromptu skits.

Two prisoners share a prison cell in an unnamed South American country. Valentin (Luis Astudillo) is a political prisoner. Uptight, moody, he spends most of his days studying his books. A committed Marxist, he is quite the fervid Puritan, although not in the obvious way, since he is merely bemused by his cellmate's homosexuality. No, Valentin is vigilant not against sexuality but against softness, especially when he detects the tendency in himself. He'll fail the revolution, he fears, if he weakens.

Molina (Russell Kellogg) is serving eight years for "gross indecency" -- being caught being gay. Changing scarves and colorful dressing gowns frequently, he is flamboyant and effeminate and takes particular pride in the latter trait. He is a woman, he insists and, like the other queens he knows, his ultimate desire is to be a wife to a macho heterosexual -- a man's man, you might say.

What elevates the prisoners' relationship from the realm of homosexual Harlequin romance fantasy is the fullness of Puig's characterizations. This isn't a tale about a gay and a straight as much as a story of mutual character transformations under the pressure of confinement.

A window dresser by occupation, Molina lives with his doting mother, who keeps him well supplied with luxuries like avocados and tea. Cooking and sharing his food is second nature to him. It seems as natural to Valentin to graciously accept -- until, now and then, he notices that he is getting too comfortable and resists.

In the same spirit, Molina is being friendly rather than seductive as, night after night, he narrates a favorite film for their mutual entertainment. It's a suspenseful horror movie concerning a legend about fierce Panther Women and the eventual transformation of the frightened heroine into one (talk about feminist empowerment). The parallel we expect is obvious: that Valentin will relax his grip on life and stop seeing enjoyment as weakness; and Molina will summon the courage to help the revolution.

Puig makes the changes quite plausible, and his story evolves organically rather than schematically. He establishes their crucial meetings of mind in small ways, as with Molina's observation that if every man were like a woman there would be no torturers.

Astudillo is at his best and most moving in that off-handed moment, registering Valentin's understanding with understated surprise and pleasure. Under the direction of Christa Crewdson, more of that modulation might have helped us get even deeper inside the character. Some of Valentin's rage needs to be withheld, kept on a rolling boil rather than volcanically erupting at every opportunity. In that way, his eventual out-of-control tantrum could accomplish some closure, for us as well as for him, instead of being just a bigger outburst.

Kellogg's confident skill in creating a convincing Molina grew on me, winning me over in the second half. What had appeared to be an over-the-top portrayal of a flaming queen in scene one eventually comes across as inevitable, and apt, excess. Like Valentin, we come to see a strength of character in all the frenetic energy that Molina displays, strength that he himself would probably dismiss with a limp-wristed brush-off.

Argentinean novelist Puig, who died in 1990, got remarkable mileage from this story. Besides adapting his 1976 book for the stage, he saw the successful 1985 film made (with William Hurt as Molina and Raul Julia as Valentin) and gave permission for the 1993 Broadway musical. This production is further, and enjoyable, proof of its longevity.