Bristol Old Vic – until 16 May 2026
Reviewed by Lucy Hitchcock
4****
From the duo of dreams, Kander and Ebb, comes a revival of Kiss of the Spider Woman to Bristol Old Vic.
Directed by Paul Foster, we follow the story of Molina (Fabian Soto Pacheco) a prisoner convicted of sexual crimes with a minor, when his world is disrupted as he is forced to room with Valentin (George Blagden). This unlikely duo are frosty to each other to begin with, but through Molina’s storytelling of his favoured actress Aurora (Anna Jane Casey) they start to bond. Molina falls for Valentin, but with him being a war criminal, the prison wants names for his crimes and torture Molina into being an informant. Dodging the truth, hiding the lies and fabricating the reality, this unlikely duo deeply connect – but at what cost?
This was a performance I had never heard of, but was pleasantly surprised. Vocally, this was a stunning performance – with Casey leading the way with pizzazz and style and Pacheco adding deliciously emotional vocals, this was stellar. The juxtapositions between the raw, emotion of Pacheco to Casey’s glitzy, glamorous showcase was a nice reprieve from the hard hitting story line. Casey also played the fabled ‘spider woman’, whose kiss will end your life, with such poise and interesting movement, that it really shuddered the audience. The staging was superb, quite simple on stage, but complex with many moving parts and perfectly timed sequences and the lighting perfectly captured the inescapable, drab prison.
There were points in the show where I found myself confused, as the story line is extremely hard hitting and it took me a minute to adjust to the fantasy versus the reality of the characters. I found the first half to be dark and lacking with the chemistry I found myself yearning for from the characters – with Blagden portraying a tough character from the offset. The second half was considerably more enjoyable (if it can be described as!) even with the subject matter being brutal and violent.
This is worth a watch, but you need to be ready for violence, brutality and psychological necessity of the old Hollywood fantasy music. Compassionate, caring and loving – will you be able to escape her web and evade the Kiss of the Spider Woman?