I don’t know what’s happened to Miami theater this season. Maybe our local directors feel that to compete with the steamy drama unfolding in our beaches, nightclubs, and half-empty luxury condos, they need to be as explicit as the stage will allow. Or maybe, given all that steamy, real-life drama, they feel that the only way to represent life as we live it is to be equally steamy on stage. Suffice it to say, local theater has been so down and dirty this year, I can hardly talk about it here.

As hot as it’s been up in English-language theater, it’s only going to get hotter when Teatro La Ma Teodora presents the debut of Talco (Talc) this Friday at Teatro Abanico in Coconut Grove. This tale of the Havana underworld is set in a decrepit movie theater that houses prostitutes, drug dealers, and thieves. And that, my dears, is all I can say here about the plot. Fans of La Ma Teodora know that Alberto Sarraín also goes deep in his depiction of the human condition and that his long-time collaborators such as actor Juan David Ferrer, who plays an aging transvestite, have a virtuoso command of characterization and physicality. There will be English subtitles, but my bet is that even if you don’t understand a word that is spoken, you will be mesmerized by what you see on stage.

The Teatro Ma Teodora premiere of Talco is at 8:30 pm on Friday, April 16 at Teatro Abanico, Arts & Minds Center, 3138 Commodore Plaza, Fourth Floor, Miam, FL 33133; 305-448-1105; www.teatroabanico.com.