Translation of Review of Second Skin Theatre’s Production of “La Chunga” in Express News Weekly: Latin American News

13 September 2011, Number 599

La Chunga and our hidden miseries

Adaptation of the work by Mario Vargas Llosa under the direction of Andy McQuade

by Lara Valencia Vences

The basement of Ryan’s Bar is where Meche and La Chunga are hiding. It’s difficult to imagine that on the edge of Stoke Newington there is room for Vargas Llosa’s mysterious characters. In the confines of The Church Street Theatre, I had the privilege of entering into the fantasy of La Chunga’s bar. This rich production has a diverse cast with different accents, including a Latino accent essencial for putting the play in context. This English adaptation of the play respects the passion and fury of the original Spanish, and is more than worthy of the work of Vargas Llosa. According to Andy McQuade, director of the play, this project was a great challenge.

The tiny stage of the theater has been converted into a rustic bar of the 1950s, owned by a strong woman, La Chunga, and frequented by Josefino, El Mono (the monkey), and Lituma, who spend their nights betting, drinking, speaking of their doubtful conquests, and taking pride in not wanting to work. With the arrival of the sensual young Meche, Josefino imposes himself as the head of the gambling table. Meche’s sensuality unsettles all the characters, unveiling their secret weaknesses. They find themselves enslaved by Meche’s enchantments and La Chunga’s austerity.

The primitive feelings and passions of the characters reveal to us our own hidden miseries. In Vargas Llosa’s own words, the work was written “to project in dramatic fiction the totality of human actions and dreams, of facts and fantasies”.

I want to give special recognition to the actors, who interpret each of the characters faithfully and with integrity, and to Andy McQuade for appreciating Vargas Llosa’s talent, and for understanding the power of the story. By the end of the play, the audience has experienced a work of great energy, and the direction of a genius of the theater, in an authentic Peruvian bar inhabited by ideas coming from the chaos of the human condition.

Info: La Chunga continues until the 2 of October in

The Church Street Theatre

181 Church Street London N16 0UL

Email: info@secondskintheatre.com