Kiss of the Spider Woman is the story of two cell mates in a Latin American prison. Molina is gay and a few years into his eight year sentence for statutory rape. Valentin is a communist revolutionary. The play covers a short period in the middle of their time together -- they have settled into a routine where Molina helps pass the time by reciting the plots of old movies, they fight, make up, talk about Molina's mother and Valentin's girlfriends, and take care of one another within the boundaries of prison life. A shocking revelation at the end of the first act complicates things and brings the play to its moving climax and its really quite perfect and wonderful ending. I liked this one a lot.

The other two plays in the collection were also very good -- particularly Mystery of the Rose Bouquet, the story of a sick old woman, her nurse, and their pasts. Like Kiss of the Spider Woman, a mixture of realism and theatre give the story its power. Highly recommended.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2009/10/kiss-of-spider-woman-and-two-other.html ] ( )

The plays in this collection are:

1. Kiss of the Spider Woman
2. Under a Mantle of Stars
3. Mystery of the Rose Bouquet

The runaway favourite is Kiss of the Spider Woman - excellent play which I look forward to seeing on stage at some point. There are two characters who share a cell in a Latin American prison, one for political crimes and the other for some unspecified transgender "indecent act". The play centres around the attempts of the two men to kill the evening hours, after lights out, by recounting the plot of a film that one of the two men has seen, given that neither of them have any desire to hear details of the other's personal life, especially those relating to the reasons for their incarceration.

The play concentrates on the burgeoning trust between two men at a time where snitching is prevalent and the governing regime is ruthless. I don't want to say anymore because it would spoil the play for anyone who isn't aware of its details. What I can say is that the dialogue between the two men is snappy and tender, revealing their irritability and rapid mood swings, but also their familiarity. The use of voiceover struck me as terribly poignant and the ending is satisfying in that certain way, where you know it must be so but you wish through your fingers that it could been otherwise. This play would get 4/ 4.5 stars from me.

Under a Mantle of Stars reminded me throughout of Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' - it has a very similar feel and a similar sense of farce and satire to convey underlying domestic strife. It was certainly amusing enough.

Mystery of the Rose Bouquet is a very sad play. Again, a two hander. A nurse and a patient, although these two characters assume other roles in the form of hallucinations throughout. It is really dealing with depression and loss in one's later years and two people's struggle to find reasons for living. There are some misunderstandings at the core of the play which move along the plot but didn't, I think, add very much to the emotion of the play. But, embedded among the story of these two women are some touching moments. ( )