Melodrama Links ‘Woman to Woman’

“Don’t live your life like a soap opera!” warns Elena, the hostess at a 20-year reunion of five Catholic school girlfriends in Spanish playwright Santiago Moncada’s 1988 satire “Woman to Woman.”

Fat chance. Before the evening is over, more secrets come tumbling out of their closets than a season’s worth of “Dallas” in its heyday--adultery, lesbianism, betrayal and prostitution, to name but a few.

Performed on different weekends in English or Spanish, Grupo de Teatro Sinergia’s dual-cast production at the Unity Arts Center plays the melodrama to the hilt, firmly slamming the door on credibility. But as soaps go, it’s wickedly engrossing from the moment Elena (Natalie Lazarus) announces their social gathering is “an investigation” into mysteries such as: which of them is having an affair with her husband, who spilled the beans that got their most fragile member (Flavia Saravalli) expelled from school mere days before graduation, and who wrote that sinister anonymous letter.

The energetic actresses (who perform in both languages) straddle this hokum with contagious enthusiasm. Lina Gallegos is a malicious delight as the writer with a flair for manipulation, Yvette Cruise devours the role of a high-class hooker with campy abandon and Sophie Santi surveys the mayhem with a cold lawyer’s eye. Nevertheless, director Ruben Amavizca still needs to attend to some awkward delivery and rough technical cues.

* “Woman to Woman,” Frida Kahlo Theatre, Unity Arts Center, 412 S. Park View, Los Angeles, through Dec. 8. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 6 p.m. In Spanish: tonight-Sunday, Dec. 5-8. In English: Thursday-Nov. 24, Nov. 29-Dec. 1. $9. (213) 382-8133. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.