1998 – The Kiss of the Spider Woman
In 1998 the New Vic Theatre commissioned Michael Cashman to direct “Kiss of the Spider Woman” coinciding with the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The House of Lords had recently over-ruled the Commons free vote to reduce the age of consent for gay men to 16 in line with the age of consent for everyone. “The Kiss of the Spider Woman” explores themes surrounding the criminalisation of those who views differ from the ruling majority and has resonances with the struggles for gay equality and other contemporary human rights issues.
The Theatre’s new director Gwenda Hughes was responsible for enlisting Michael Cashman to take on his directorial debut with the play. Local community newsletter “Pink Lobby” (issue 8) reported that the recent change in management at The New Vic had made a commitment to reach out to local communities and their production of ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ might be the first of many more interesting plays with a Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual theme.
The Enduring Story and Its Legacy
The Kiss of the Spider Woman is a landmark work of LGBTQ+ and political themed storytelling that has evolved across literature, theatre and film, over nearly five decades. Originally published in 1976, the novel was written by Argentine author Manuel Puig, whose bold, experimental style challenged prevailing cultural attitudes toward sexuality, power, and resistance.
Set largely within a Latin American prison cell, the story centres on two inmates: Molina, a gay man who escapes harsh reality through retelling glamorous film fantasies, and Valentín, a political revolutionary. Through their growing emotional bond, Puig explores desire, freedom of expression, state oppression, and LGBTQ+ experience, urging audiences to question mainstream assumptions about homosexuality and masculinity.
Puig later adapted his novel into a stage play, which premiered in London in 1985, starring Simon Callow and Mark Rylance. That same year, the story reached a wider audience with a critically acclaimed film adaptation directed by Hector Babenco. The film starred William Hurt, whose performance earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor.
In the 1990s, The Kiss of the Spider Woman was transformed again—this time into a Broadway musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb. Opening in 1993, the production starred Chita Rivera and won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Most recently, the story has been adapted into a new 2025 film version, reaffirming its enduring relevance. Across every form it has taken, The Kiss of the Spider Woman remains a powerful narrative about love, fantasy, identity, and political resistance.
Michael Cashman
At the time of the New Vic production, Michael Cashman was best known for his past role as Colin, a gay character in EastEnders. In 1989, the programme featured the first male same-sex mouth-to-mouth kiss ever shown in a British soap opera – a landmark moment in UK television history watched by an estimated 17 million viewers. Broadcast at a time of rising intolerance due to the introduction of Section 28 and the escalating AIDS crisis, the scene firmly established Cashman as a prominent public figure in the struggle for gay visibility and equal rights.
Shaped by the charged public and political climate of the era, Cashman went on to co-found Stonewall, one of the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ rights organisations, alongside Ian McKellen, Lisa Power and others in 1989. He subsequently retired from acting to pursue a political career and was elected as a Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands, serving in that role from 1999 until 2014.
In 1998 Michael Cashman wrote an article for Pink Lobby, our local gay community newsletter, reflecting on the continued relevance of Kiss of the Spider Woman to the ongoing struggle for gay equality. You can read the article below.
From Pink Lobby Issue 9, a community newsletter published September 1998 (with grateful thanks to Maurice Greenham for access to his personal archive)
Copyright Notice
Any news clippings featured here have been compiled by the posts author, Andrew Colclough, from various archives as part of his personal research into local LGBT+ history and are shared here on the basis of fair personal/non commercial use. Copyright, where applicable, belongs to the newspapers and magazines that published the articles. I believe that any photographs used in this post are in the public domain – I have acknowledged specific sources where possible but please contact us if there is anything here that needs further permission or acknowledgment. Text written by the post’s author is copyright of Andrew Colclough. Thank you!