BWW Q&A: José Luis Arellano on KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN at GALA Hispanic Theatre
Now on stage through September 28th, 2025.
By: Joshua Wright Sep. 04, 2025
Set in an Argentine prison, Kiss of the Spider Woman follows two cellmates as they struggle to overcome prejudices and preconceptions—Valentín, a revolutionary political prisoner, and Molina, a queer idealist who copes by escaping reality into film noir fantasies. What begins as a clash of ideologies becomes an unlikely bond forged through vulnerability, imagination, trust and resilience. Lyrical, provocative, and emotionally charged, Puig’s story is a powerful meditation on love, identity, respect, and survival under oppression.
First staged in 1983, the play remains strikingly relevant today. It shed light on Argentina’s “Dirty War,” when the government used violence against its own people and the kidnapping, torture and disappearance of thousands to remain in power.
This revival revisits a landmark moment in GALA’s history: the acclaimed 1994 production that earned GALA co-founder Hugo Medrano a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor—the first ever for a Spanish-language performance in D.C.
José Luis Arellano (Director) is the Artistic Director of LaJoven in Madrid, and a Spanish stage and opera director A long-time collaborator with GALA, this marks his thirteenth collaboration with the company. Arellano has directed numerous acclaimed GALA productions, including Yerma (winner of six 2016 Helen Hayes Awards, including Outstanding Direction), Revoltosa (2023 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble), and Lope De Vega's Fuenteovejuna in February 2025, among others. He studied at the Royal School of Dramatic Art in Madrid and began his career at Teatro Real, and Centro Dramático Nacional, earning a MAX Award, and a Valle Inclán, Teatro Rojas nominations. Under his leadership, LaJoven won the 2024 Talía Award for Best Company for his 27 productions during the past 11 years. His most outstanding theatrical works last season were A monster calls and the opera Maria Estuardo with music by the American composer Martin Hennessy.
This is the first time you're directing a play for GALA that is not by a Spanish playwright. Why Kiss of Spider Woman and why now?
"The Kiss of the Spider Woman" is a masterpiece of Spanish-language literature, so that reason alone would be enough for me to embark on this adventure. But it is also an emotional, tender, and necessary work for exploring who we are, what we mean, and our need for one another. In this story of strange encounters, Manuel Puig plumbs a hidden, underground, poetic river that manages to trace the map of our desires and despairs in a world that is ever hostile yet provides refuge in impossible places. Beyond that, this piece is one of the emblematic works of GALA Theatre, and for me, it is an honor to carry the torch passed down by so many—by Hugo, Abel, and all those who made this fantastic madness called GALA possible. A necessary place for us to take refuge from the pain of the outside world.
How and did the collaboration with GALA start?
Valentin, the younger, more idealistic character, is immersed in an external, revolutionary ideal, a tremendous yearning to change the world. He will come to discover that the true revolution lies in the small things, and that changing oneself is a more manageable task than trying to transform the world. And perhaps, once a person has changed, they may then be capable of transforming what exists around them. He will do this with the help of a morally ambiguous character like Molina, a being rejected by a cruel society that neither understands difference nor the beauty of poetry. Molina, in turn, will come to understand that stories, no matter how beautiful, are not enough to live on, that while action may be painful it is necessary.
What is the message you try to convey through the staging of Kiss of Spider Woman?
I have focused primarily on the actors and the text. The rest of the theatrical elements are directed toward them. We are inside a prison, a dark place that could very well be a metaphor for our own personal prison. This place suggests escape routes, openings that offer possibilities beyond ourselves, but accepting the challenge of sticking one’s head out involves great risk. The lighting and the music, which is original, will also be fundamental elements in telling this story, where the shadows of thought, or of classic films, exert a powerful influence over the two characters.
What kind of elements in set, costumes, makeup the audience will enjoy and how you are using them to tell the story?
The Washington audience has a chance to let themselves be moved by this story, one of the great works of late 20th-century Latin American literature, a masterpiece performed by two remarkable actors, full of nuance and play, who deliver a kind of acting “tour de force” that will be deeply appreciated by the audience. They are joined by an artistic and technical team that makes this production a first-rate artistic creation. “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is tender and powerful, gripping and absorbing, like the web the actors will weave to trap us—and ensure we don’t leave the theater unscathed.
Why must audiences come and see the show?
The Washington audience has a chance to let themselves be moved by this story, one of the great works of late 20th-century Latin American literature, a masterpiece performed by two remarkable actors, full of nuance and play, who deliver a kind of acting “tour de force” that will be deeply appreciated by the audience. They are joined by an artistic and technical team that makes this production a first-rate artistic creation. “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is tender and powerful, gripping and absorbing, like the web the actors will weave to trap us—and ensure we don’t leave the theater unscathed.
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