Arriving in New York in the very season when Bruce Jenner’s personal revelations have put questions about gender in the headlines, Viola di Mare is certainly timely. The monodrama, written and acted by Isabella Carloni, underscores the ways in which gender identity may coincide—or not coincide—with sexuality. (The show is presented as part of In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, which is produced by Manhattan’s Kairos Italy Theater.)

Viola di Mare is based on a true story, retold in Giacomo Pilati’s 2004 novel Minchia di re, which was adapted as a 2009 film directed by Donatella Maiorca (the movie version was also called Viola di Mare). Set in the 19th century, the play tells the tale of Pina, the daughter of an influential Sicilian man. Pina falls in love with another young woman, Sara. Complications ensue, which allow Pina and Sara to remain together—but at a cost: Pina must live her life as a man.

As the audience enters the theatre, they see Carloni as Pina seated stage right. She is half dressed. Her breasts have been bound with a winding tape. Slowly she pulls on trousers, a shirt and men’s shoes. But however convincing she may be in her male garb (which includes a penile falsie) the basic problem remains. Pina is not transgendered. She is a lesbian who is being asked to conceal not her sexuality, but rather her feminine identity—and doing so is anathema to her. (The title Viola di Mare alludes to the “rainbow wrasse,” a saltwater fish that can change from female to male—something that doesn’t come at all naturally to Pina.)

Carloni demonstrates emotional intensity and vocal variety in her role, but for many English-speaking theatergoers the show will likely prove unsatisfying. It is performed partly in Italian and partly in English, without supertitles, but the language balance is not a fifty-fifty proposition. I would guess that approximately one-quarter of Carloni’s lines are delivered in English. Many of the English speeches are murmured or whispered, while some of the Italian is much louder. To make things even more problematic, some of the recorded musical cues drown out the English words that audience members are straining to hear.

A scene-by-scene synopsis in the program helps alleviate the problem to some degree, but not entirely. Perhaps if there were other characters onstage, interacting with Carloni, audiences could piece together what is happening from moment to moment. But she is alone onstage, and many of her speeches seem to be expositional. This means that anyone not fluent in Italian is pretty much lost at sea, swimming with the real-life rainbow wrasses.

On the other hand, the fluent-in-Italian contingent at the show’s opening performance seemed quite taken with the proceedings. (One man said in an audience “talk back” that Viola di Mare was better than a solo show he’d seen on Broadway.) So I imagine Carloni was doing something right.