Second Skin Theatre presents La Chunga by Mario Vargas Ilosa

Poster image painted by Magdalena Rutkowska

Second Skin Theatre’s production of LA CHUNGA opened on Tuesday to a sold-out crowd that included Nobel Prize Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. The playwright brought with him several friends to see the UK premiere production of his 1986 Peruvian drama, a love story between two women, at the atmospheric Phoenix Artist Club in the West End.

After the performance, Vargas Llosa proclaimed that Second Skin Theatre’s production of LA CHUNGA was unlike any he had ever seen and hailed the cast as being “fantastic”. (Photo: Andy McQuade, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Nika Khitrova)

Following this memorable opening night, Artistic Director of Second Skin Theatre Andy McQuade was awarded Best Director (Theatre) 2012 by Fringe Report.

Setting up a new theatre can be a perilous thing. But Second Skin’s refurbishment of Ryan’s Bar in Stoke Newington is applauded by a hoard of rosy faces on this, its first official night. What makes it even more special is director Andy McQuade’s willingness to be experimental with his choice, staging Mario Vargas Llosa’s La Chunga – an interwoven play about fantasy and disgust in backwater Peru.