Paperwing pushes boundaries with Lolita.

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.”

So begins the most notorious novel of the 20th century. A fascinating, hilarious, highly intelligent portrait of a middle-aged man with an unsavory attraction to an adolescent girl. As controversial as it is brilliant, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita continues to make waves nearly 50 years after its publication.

This weekend the Paperwing Theatre Company makes good on their promise to shake up local theater by staging an adaptation of Lolita at the Fox Theatre in Salinas.

The story, which Vanity Fair once called “the only convincing love story of our century,” features characters who have become cultural icons. Today, any lecherous older man is a Humbert Humbert, any sexually precocious girl a Lolita.

Nabokov’s insightful and entertaining tale has long been a lightning rod for Puritanical censors and reactionaries whose opinions of the story are based on common misperceptions and not the text itself. With this in mind, Paperwing’s artistic directors Koly McBride and LJ Brewer have gleefully invited trouble by staging the notorious story.

“We’re taking Paperwing in a whole new direction,” McBride says. “Edgy theater only goes on every so often around here and we’ve learned that our best shows are the ones with controversy.”

Paperwing stirred the pot a few years back with a fun, energetic production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a cartoonish musical starring transvestite aliens and a lot of skin. LJ Brewer stole the show with his spot-on performance as Frank N. Furter, the predatory sexual alien who gallivants about the stage in fishnets and black satin panties. Brewer says he realizes that this new role as Humbert Humbert is very different and may have far more serious consequences.

“Humbert is much more controversial than Frank,” he says, “primarily because he could be a real person. Frank is cotton candy. I tell people I’m playing Humbert and they go, ‘Oh my God.’”

Brewer says that after he played Frank N. Furter, a lot of people asked whether he was gay or liked to wear ladies clothes in real life, and worries that those same people, the ones who have a hard time distinguishing between life and theater, may react as strongly to his portrayal of Humbert Humbert.

“As a father and an upstanding member of society I’ve been through a lot of reflection of whether to do this part and what the social ramifications could be, and those pretty much dissolved after I read the book,” Brewer continues. “Humbert doesn’t walk into the story looking for understanding. He admits to being criminal. He’s a tragic villain and while there are reasons, there are not excuses. As an actor I’m not looking for sympathy, I’m looking for empathy.”

Before the show even opened, McBride and Brewer experienced some extreme reactions to the idea of Lolita.

“It’s interesting to watch people’s body and facial language,” McBride says. “You can tell right off who’s going to have a problem with it.”

Yet they’ve quickly discovered that teachers and professors are their biggest supporters, primarily because they’re usually the ones who’ve actually read the book and understand how the media and the pop cultural powers that be have distorted and manipulated it.

“The media has run with the word ‘Lolita.’ Unfortunately, that’s what most people’s sense are,” Brewer says. “Say ‘Lolita’ and most people think you’re talking about Buttafuoco. It’s sad.”

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Fortunately, Paperwing’s production will give people the opportunity to experience Nabokov’s story, themes and gorgeous language firsthand. The script was adapted from the book by the author himself.

As for the title character, Lolita will be played by 21-year-old CSUMB student Heather Winterhalter. “She looks 14, but we’re trying to play her down even further,” McBride says.

In the book, Humbert Humbert first meets Lolita when she’s 12.

McBride says they had some trouble finding an actor willing to take on the role of Lolita. Two of the three women who auditioned walked away when they discovered there would be nudity. Fortunately, they found the ideal candidate in Winterhalter.

“Heather really stepped up,” McBride says. “In fact, she had written a paper on nudity on stage for school.”

Although there is some nudity and language in the production, McBride says they tried to keep it “non-gratuitous.”

“If you’re coming to be titillated, if you’re looking for lust or pornography, don’t come. It’s not what it’s about,” McBride says. “It’s a love story.”

LOLITA opens Thursday at 7pm and continues with 8pm performances on Friday and Saturday and a 2pm matinee on Sunday through May 7 at the Fox Theatre, 243 Main St., Salinas. $17/adults; $15/seniors, students and teachers. For more info call 675-0521 or visit paperwingtheatreco.com.