González endows Valentin with a modern masculinity. His Molina knows how dangerous it is to call undue attention to himself, even as he makes no effort to conform to traditional gender expectations. Martin doesn’t overplay Molina’s flamboyance. Under Michetti’s direction, the actors are permitted to make the characters their own. He may adopt a craven facade, but there’s courage waiting to be tapped. Molina, who’s caught up in a prison conspiracy, has the opportunity to discover what matters to him beyond the creature comforts he has relied on to dull the pain of his existence. What’s more, his tightly wound masculinity begins to loosen as he sees the effect of an oppressive system on someone he comes to care about deeply. Valentin rolls his eyes at Molina’s romanticism, though slowly but surely he begins to acknowledge a place in his ideology for love. Their unexpected friendship expands their identities and chips away at the stereotypes that have been cruelly imposed on them. Living side by side in confinement, they come to depend on each other for psychological sustenance. But he can’t help responding to Molina’s kindness and generosity.Ī curious tenderness develops between the cellmates, who begin to take in the humanity of each other that their society has denied. And he loathes what he perceives as homosexual abjection. Valentin grows impatient with Molina’s frivolity, his fundamental lack of seriousness. He shares his food with Valentin, fussing over his cellmate and tending to him when he’s sick. Molina struts and frets like a South American Blanche DuBois, albeit one with a maternal streak. The men could hardly be more different, but a repressive political regime makes for strange bedfellows. Valentin (Adrián González), a straight Marxist, thinks only of his revolutionary mission. Martin), a gay window dresser arrested on a morals charge, escapes harsh reality through the fantasy of movies. Set in a Buenos Aires prison, the drama sets up a political odd couple.

But the production, directed by Michael Michetti, builds in potency, ultimately ensnaring its audience in the time-tested tale. The spell cast by the revival of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at A Noise Within in Pasadena doesn’t shoot many sparks early on.

Author of kiss of the spider woman