‘Reservoir Dolls’ a gender-bending twist on Tarantino classic

You have two shots to catch Quentin Tarantino's act this weekend.

On the big screen, the writer-director's "The Hateful Eight" focuses on eight strangers who take shelter in an isolated cabin in the dead of a Wild West winter — and find themselves on an inexorable path to bloodshed.

Meanwhile, at the Onyx Theatre, there's a stage adaptation of a movie that "The Hateful Eight" sometimes recalls: Tarantino's 1992 indie breakthrough, "Reservoir Dogs," in which ragtag crooks realize there's a snitch in their midst — after their planned diamond heist goes horribly wrong.

But the Onyx's version has undergone a sex-change operation, transforming "Reservoir Dogs" into "Reservoir Dolls."

The gang's colorful character aliases (Pink, Orange, White, Blonde) remain the same, but the operative honorifics have shifted from Mr. to Ms.

That's not the only shift, however.

"The sheer nature of switching gender switches empathies," according to director Troy Heard.

Or, as actress Valerie Carpenter Bernstein (alias Ms. White) explains, "there's a basic psychological difference between men and women, logic versus emotion. When you apply that to any stressful situation, you automatically heighten the stakes."

For writer Erika Soerensen, however, changing "Reservoir's" resident "Dogs" to "Dolls" had a more basic inspiration.

When she saw "Reservoir Dogs" for the first time, "I was blown away (pun intended) by it," she notes in an email interview. "The dialogue was so witty and intense and interesting — Tarantino is a genius with words — and I thought, 'Women never get a chance to indulge in such meaty characters and dialogue; it's always the same milquetoast parts recycled over and over again.' "

Believing women "can totally take these emotions and scenarios to the same level as men," Soerensen determined to "show that to the world," changing "Reservoir's" lead characters to women, "so that other female actors (including myself) have the opportunity to dig into such juicy roles and show the world how much emotion, anger and range we can carry."

That strategy represented "a very risky experiment," she adds, "because I was taking an extremely masculine cult classic and turning it on its head — like conceptual theater art — and it worked!"

Soerensen's "Reservoir Dolls" debuted in 2009 in Chico, Calif. (where she's based), with the author as Ms. White; she played Ms. Pink in 2011 in Seattle. (The current Onyx version is the fourth, following a 2012 Portland production.)

Throughout, "I wanted to keep it REAL," Soerensen emails, "not some silly parody with boobs and lipstick."

That remains Heard's goal too.

"It's not a parody. It's not an impersonation. It's still a heist gone wrong," the director says. "It's such a great, juicy kind of modern noir. There's no reason women couldn't do these roles."

As a recent Onyx rehearsal demonstrates, with Heard overseeing typical Tarantino exchanges (punctuated by multiple F-bombs) involving Bernstein, Jillian Austin as Ms. Pink and Lissa Townsend Rodgers as Ms. Blonde. (Deven Ceriotti, Abby Dandy, Gail Romero, April Sauline and Heather Silvio round out the cast's "eight killer women — literally and figuratively," as Heard describes them.)

Following a run-through, Heard acknowledges that "it's a lot of dialogue" for the cast members to deliver. "There's a lot of stuff going on — it's not just A-B, it's A-B to X-Y-Z. … We just want to find all the different colors in this scene. Tension's very important. But so is levity."

When Heard first read Soerensen's "Reservoir Dolls," Tarantino's trademark comedy seemed largely missing from the adaptation, he acknowledges.

"My gut reaction was 'Wow, this is so serious,' " Heard recalls. But when he "got to hear the script" aloud, "all the comedy" came out. "There's so much humor."

Especially because the characters play it straight.

"The humor is very unintentional," Heard explains. "That's what makes it so funny."

Although "Reservoir Dolls" retains some Tarantino hallmarks — "it's very vulgar and very violent," the director notes — Soerensen has replaced the movie's nonsequential narrative structure with "a straight-through (story)line, which is "really cool (because) some of the surprises get delayed."

Even with the on-stage gender switch, however, every "Reservoir Dolls" director — so far — has been male, Soerensen points out, "and so supportive and fabulous."

One male, however, hasn't had any input — and that's Quentin Tarantino himself.

Soerensen has not approached him, "but I would love to find a way to!" she emails. "I think he would really dig this concept — especially with the success of his 'Kill Bill' movies. He does not shy away from strong, tough female leads and I just love him for that."

— Read more from Carol Cling at reviewjournal.com. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.