Hot 'n' soft, written, performed, and directed by Muriel Miguel (founder of Spiderwoman Theater), is a one-woman performance, described as a “lesbian erotica/trickster story.”
“After encountering only male trickster stories, Miguel decided to build a piece around a female lesbian coyote trickster...Adding erotica to the mix, Miguel bases her tale on taboos not normally spoken of in the Native lesbian community, hair, two-timing, being uncomfortable, and getting older.”
– description by The American Indian Community House, New York City
I was able to watch Muriel Miguel’s 1992 performance of Hot 'n' soft online, which I found to be really important, as this is definitely a performance that is meant to be seen and heard rather than read. Muriel is an incredible performer and her movement (her physical embodiment of the characters) and sound only enrich the script. She brings the story to such life that I would not have received the same experience if I had instead read it.
Hot 'n' soft begins with Muriel making the sounds of a woman having an orgasm. Muriel comes on stage and says lines such as: “Can’t wait to get your hands on her” and “Try and get each other’s clothes off.” She then walks us through the steps of her and her partner moving to the bed to have sex. What makes this scene stick out is its emphasis on movement and sound. It is a very physical scene, which Muriel performs wonderfully. It is funny and had me laughing out loud. It also felt very real, perfectly encapsulating a woman’s desire.
Once this scene ends, Muriel says to the audience: “Hi. My name is Muriel, and I’m a storyteller.” Hot 'n' soft is then divided into different stories.
The first story is called, “The First Encounter.” In this story, Muriel meets a woman. Muriel divulges that what she really liked about this woman was that she was so hairy.
“I’m Indian, and in our family, there’s not much hair and what you see on my head is what I got. I thought all women were like this. That all women were hairless.”
- Muriel in Hot 'n' soft
Muriel then goes on to say how much she loves the feel of hair. Thus, when Muriel’s lover informs her that she is going to shave the hair off her body because she does not like it, Muriel says: “I felt bereft.” Muriel loves her lover’s hair and does not want her to shave it. This story is my favorite because I love how it is about a woman loving a hairy woman. Women are told they need to shave and that lots of body hair is not beautiful and makes them more like a man. However, in this story, Muriel loves her lover’s hairiness, and I think that is really great to see. It is also very honest that her lover would not love her body hair, wanting to shave it. That feels very real, as just because her partner loves her hair does not automatically mean she is going to love her own hair.
The next story is a Coyote story. Muriel informs the audience that she thinks she loves coyotes because their toes are so hairy. She then explains to the audience that coyotes are called tricksters.
“A trickster is something like, you’re walking along having a great time in your life, nothing particular is going wrong with it, and something taps you on the shoulder and you turn around and “Bam!”, it hits you on the head. That’s a trickster.”
- Muriel in Hot 'n' soft
Most translations of coyote trickster stories have been written by men, with the trickster usually being male. Thus, Muriel decides to tell us a story about a female coyote. This coyote decides to dress up one day as a man and try and fool Fox (a female). As Coyote walks about, she says in a rough, “masculine” voice: “I’m tough. I’m tough. I am coyote.” I found this line to be important, because it emphasizes the false notion that in order to be a man, men need to be tough. It also shows that women are often told not to be tough, as Coyote asserts her toughness when she dresses like a man. When Coyote arrives at Fox’s, the two of them end up having sex. However, Fox is not fooled by Coyote’s outfit and says: “Coyote, would you take that silly stuffing out of your pants and let’s get down to business.” They then have sex. Thus, Coyote was not able to fool Fox and instead was the one who ended up being fooled and seduced by Fox (who likes women).
The next story is called, “Lesbian Love.” Muriel tells us that she came up with this story after researching lesbian erotica and being unable to find anything, or when she did, it was badly written. She therefore tells us a story of a sexual encounter with a woman (who happens to have very big feet). This story, like the others, utilizes repetition. Throughout the whole performance, Muriel repeats phrases and movements. Muriel’s use of repetition is very important to her stories, as they emphasize tender moments, as well as humorous ones. Repetition can very easily be overdone, but this is not the case in Hot 'n' soft. Muriel utilizes repetition just enough to suck you in and bring out the nuances in her stories. Her use of repetition was my favorite technique of hers, as I feel like it made her stories even more poignant.
Her next story is mostly performed behind the quilt, which lies as the backdrop throughout the performance (the same quilt that has been used in all Spiderwoman Theater performances). I conclude that Muriel performs behind the quilt for this scene to emphasize the theme of the story. In this story, Muriel tells of a time she was caught by a woman who wanted Muriel, but Muriel was not that interested in her and was only flirting. Muriel being physically caught behind the quilt emphasizes her feelings throughout the story. Muriel then dances and mimes having sex with a chair to the song, “Venus.” The scene might come as a surprise at first, especially since music has not been used in the performance, but this scene works in Hot 'n' soft. This is due not only to the fact that it relates to the story, but it also seems to fit Muriel’s personality, which to me makes it work. It is also very funny and therefore fits with the rest of the show.
Muriel’s next story is another Coyote story, where she tells of a two-timing Coyote. This Coyote has two girlfriends, and though she tries to hide it from them, the two inevitably find out. This story ends with Coyote finding the words, “Dear Coyote, eat your tail. The two of us,” written on the bathroom mirror in lipstick. It is a comedic moment that also seems to say, "Coyote kind of had it coming to her." This story also utilizes repetition to emphasize Coyote’s lies to both of her girlfriends.
The performance concludes with a story about Muriel getting older and her encounter with another woman. This story is also told very honestly, expressing feelings that many women experience in regards to age and body. Muriel then ends the performance with one last coyote howl.
Hot 'n' soft is very much about storytelling, and Muriel tells the audience that right up front by saying she is a storyteller. However, instead of just using words to tell us these stories, Muriel also greatly utilizes movement and sound to tell them. Many of the moments in this piece that stood out to me were the ones that did not utilize words and instead were focused on Muriel’s movement and sound. This is also a testament to Muriel’s storytelling and acting skills since she can convey a story so beautifully without using many words.
Hot 'n' soft is a very funny performance that is also filled with a lot of truth and honesty, and I highly recommend watching it.
November 18, 2018
Link to Muriel Miguel's performance of Hot 'n' soft
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