FESTIVAL ’90 : Abdoh’s ‘Pisadas’ a Broader Palette : Theater: The playwright’s new work is a mystery-revenge drama re-creating the outlandish emotions and commercialism of Mexican <i> telenovelas</i> . It opens tonight at the Park Plaza Hotel.

Reza Abdoh isn’t the sort of theater artist who expects fans to flock to his work. He doesn’t expect fans, period. “Minamata,” his daring multimedia spectacle on eco-horrors, drove offended audience members out of the Los Angeles Theatre Center last year.

But on the July opening night of “Father Was a Peculiar Man,” his version of “The Brothers Karamazov” (co-authored, as was “Minamata,” by Mira-Lani Oglesby), Abdoh was amazed to find that L.A. theatergoers who had been following his work followed him all the way to New York’s meat-packing district, where “Father” was being staged.

Abdoh groupies?

He quietly scoffs at the notion while sitting in an LATC rehearsal room, preparing “Pisadas en la Obscuridad (Footsteps in the Dark)” for its L.A. Festival opening tonight at the Park Plaza Hotel (moved from its original Jack’s Placita venue.) But right in the middle of Abdoh’s green turtleneck is a button picturing that all-time groupie leader, Andy Warhol.

“I suppose there are people out there who will come see whatever it is I’m doing,” he says. “But I don’t pay attention to that. I’m actually looking forward to a wide audience for ‘Pisadas,’ ” says Abdoh, referring to the show’s free admission.

He even hints that his would-be fans might be cool to his latest production, because it delves into forms and traditions new to Abdoh’s already broad palette.

This dissatisfaction would be a natural reaction to a theater maker who disdains consistency, except for consistently refusing to be pigeonholed. “The kind of theater I’m interested in,” says Abdoh, “gives off a sense of bewilderment.”

Which means, don’t expect “Pisadas” to repeat the dazzling, epic scale of “Minamata” and “Father,” as well as such previous works as his eccentric adaptations of “Medea” and “King Lear.” It is a plot-heavy, mystery-revenge drama performed in Spanish (with English synopsis) and re-creating the outlandish emotions and commercialism of Mexican telenovelas , or soap operas.

“It begins,” explains Abdoh, “with a performing troupe putting on a show for television. The protagonist is an aging movie star, involved with a corrupt chief of police, who, in turn, is involved with a smuggling ring.” That’s just the setup for a deadly web that includes accidental murder, Chinese massage parlors, transvestites, con jobs and revenge.

Woven into this are the backstage misadventures of the troupe, led by its two stars, who are both professional drag performers: Raul Alvarado, as the movie star, and Carlos Niebla, as his rival. “Drag artists,” Abdoh cautions, “would never appear in telenovelas . But what (co-writer) Frank (Ambriz) and I were trying to do was link unlikely elements. The context of reality in telenovelas is always tenuous, and drag is always about illusion.”

Abdoh then stops himself. “I can’t help but make this sound more complex than it really is. It’s the way I talk. (“Pisadas”) is not overwrought and heavy. It’s light.”

Iranian-born, London-educated, Los Angeles-smitten, the 26-year-old Abdoh always seems to have one foot in the Third World, another in the First, as taken with religious rites as with proscenium traditions--and just the kind of artist festival director Peter Sellars wanted. Sellars, appreciative of Abdoh’s work before knowing that the director was based in Los Angeles, declares that “Reza is one of the great young talents in world theater. He’s utterly convinced of his own voice. He has confidence and abandon. The results may be maddening, but so is our century.”

Part of what is “maddening” about Abdoh’s theater is his refusal to conform to formulas. Confessing a need to confront head-on the kind of formula soap opera represents, Abdoh says, “I believe in whatever form I’m working on or adapting, but I also believe in subverting it. In ‘Pisadas,’ this even extends to drag performance. A lot of drag artists have a problem with sexual identity, though they eventually work it out. This show touches on the problem, which has sometimes been difficult during rehearsals for Raul and Carlos. They’ve had to break down a whole new set of inhibitions.

“On the other hand, though audiences may enjoy drag shows, they don’t want to see the impersonator offstage. We’ll show both. It’s shocking to feel that the person with whom you sympathize may be suddenly repellent.”