The Argentine writer Manuel Puig was in prison for two reasons why no one should be deprived of liberty: for his political ideas and for his sexual identity. From that experience and from some aspects of the life of Mexican writer and activist Luis González de Alba, The Kiss of the Spider Woman (Seix Barral) was born. The novel, which was banned in Argentina in the 1970s, achieved international success and was adapted for film and theater.
It was he himself who made that adaptation, which is now coming to Barcelona, at the Goya Theater, in a new version by Diego Sabanés, who has made an update "without so much Latin American context", says the director of this production, Carlota Ferrer. Likewise, many of the cinematographic references have been reduced, since in the original novel the two prisoners are counted up to six films, while in the current version the reference film is Kiss of the Panther Woman.
“The work arises from the idea of cinema as salvation. Counting movies is his way of escape. They are two prisoners at ideological antipodes: one is in jail for his sexual identity and the other for political reasons, ”declares the director. Molina is a woman in a man's body, locked up for seducing a minor, and Valentín is a political activist who wants to change the world. The actors who give life to the two prisoners who share a cell are Eusebio Poncela and Igor Yebra, who have been on the Spanish stage for ten months now.
“We have toured and known the whole country with this work; we have eaten the meals and we have drunk the wines of each place, but the public reacts the same everywhere”, affirms Poncela. “It is true that the work is a bit sentimental, but the director has polished it and has ensured that the emotion does not wane at any time. I also want to add that this is one of the functions in which I like to go on stage the most. She is a choreographer and that choreography that she has put together, the movement on stage, instead of tying you up, leaves you very loose”, says the actor, who confesses that where he currently feels best is in the theater, for that reason for a long time that says no to many audiovisual offers.
The other prisoner is the Bilbao dancer Igor Yebra, who when he left the direction of the Sodre National Ballet of Uruguay in 2020 decided to return to theater. Yebra refers to how the project began: “In the middle of the pandemic he was in Uruguay and was going to leave the direction of the National Ballet. It was then that a friend asked me why he didn't go back to the theater. With Eusebio I had already done Esto no es la casa de Bernarda Alba and I proposed to him and Carlota to put on The Kiss of the Spider Woman. Within a week they had both joined the project”.
“It was a joy for everyone, because we were in the middle of the pandemic,” adds Poncela. And Ferrer considers that "there is a parallel because these characters are also locked up and need imagination to escape."
Yebra refers that Manuel Puig's contemporaries accused him of being a pop author: “I think he is and that he would be very happy about this. The play talks about something very serious, but it has a great sense of humor, which helps to lower the tension. Carlota has managed to capture very well the idea that Puig had”.
This tragicomedy is presented for two weeks at the Goya theater in Barcelona, produced by Pentación Espectáculos. Jordi González, from Grup Focus, defends repertoire theatre, "essential for a big city like Barcelona". The kiss of the spider woman had not been represented in the city since 2005. "The two characters are like yin and yang, two sides of the same coin," concludes Ferrer.
