Speaking the Language of Love

The opening scene of "Tu ternura Molotov" ("Your Molotov Kisses") is one of those refreshing sequences about modern couplehood that shows how procreation can sometimes be awkward, comical and painstakingly mechanical.

It's nighttime at Victoria and Daniel's home. The couple is on the brink of copulation. Victoria (Menchu Esteban), a television anchor, is pressing a hot water bottle against her body so that she and her husband, Daniel (Timothy Pabon), a celebrity lawyer, can supposedly conceive a baby boy. While Victoria waits for her body to heat up, even holding a thermometer in her mouth, Daniel is recounting a moment earlier in the week in which he had seen flying saucers in the sky.

Then the doorbell rings insistently. To the probable befuddlement of most audience members, Daniel leaves Victoria in heat and goes to the door, where he finds a FedEx package bearing a frightening address: Federal Bureau of Investigation. J. Edgar Hoover Building.

And so begins one of two Spanish-speaking plays (with English surtitles) in the Washington area this month, each about couplehood and its attendant perils. "Tu ternura Molotov," written by Venezuelan writer Gustavo Ott and playing at the GALA Hispanic Theatre, has a very Beltway type of theme: What happens if you are a public figure and your past returns to haunt you?

"This couple is urbane, socially conscious, who both have a past that they have not shared with each other," said director Abel L¿pez. "This couple is trying to conceive a child, and it's somewhat disturbing when you consider that they want to bring in a child who would continue their questionable values."

The other play, "Frida Kahlo, La Pasi¿n," at Gunston Arts Center in Arlington, is a surrealist depiction of Mexico's perhaps most tempestuous couple: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the self-portraitist and mural painter, respectively, whose irreverent sexual lives attracted as much scrutiny as their work. The play examines how people, despite the obvious consequences of their own actions, can often be resistant to change.

"Characters don't change their routes sometimes. They go toward their objective," said director and Teatro de la Luna co-founder Mario Marcel in Spanish, interpreted by actor Peter Pereyra, who plays Rivera. "They don't play 'good' to be good or 'bad' to be bad. They are what they are."

The play traces Kahlo, played by Anabel Marcano, from her teenage years to adulthood when she was as notorious for her trysts with Rivera and actress Maria Felix as she was famous for her art. The play is set in Kahlo and Rivera's blue home in Coyoacan, an affluent Mexico City neighborhood, with scenes shifting from Kahlo's studio to her bedroom to her dining room. Reproductions of an unfinished mural by Rivera and pieces from their house set the mood.

For Pereyra, the major challenge was representing a historical figure but infusing Diego's character with his own style. His favorite scene, he said, is when, despite Rivera and Kahlo being well into adulthood and separated, Rivera proposes to her again. As the play's central theme suggests, despite the tumult in their relationship, the pair could not avoid being together.

The other challenge playing the notoriously large Rivera? Pereyra laughed. "I am not robust," he said.

Tu ternura Molotov GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW 800-494-8497 Through Feb 24. $30-$34. In Spanish with English surtitles. Frida Kahlo, La Pasi¿n Gunston Arts Center, 2700 S. Lang St., Arlington 703-548-3092, 202-882-6227 Through March 1. $25-$30. In Spanish with English surtitles. Tu ternura Molotov GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW 800-494-8497 Through Feb 24. $30-$34. In Spanish with English surtitles.