La Chunga

Chunga (the mesmerising Victoria Grove) is husky and commanding of voice, tolerating the ribaldry of dice-playing ‘super studs’, really just a bunch of cerveza-swigging layabouts.

When the dice stakes are too high for sleazy Josefino’s (Stephen Connery-Brown) wallet he puts young, beautiful new girlfriend Meche (Nika Khitrova), on the table: if Chunga loans Josefino the cash for a huge bet, she can have Meche to herself until dawn.

The scene is set for plenty of heat in this simmering play by Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. The Peruvian playwright himself flew out from Madrid to see the show which is being staged for the first time in the UK – theatre company Second Skin brings La Chunga to the Phoenix Artist Club after a brief first run in Stoke Newington last year.

While the Phoenix is more well-known as an actors’ members club, it serves the poky bar setting well, although a few softer moments were affected by the sound of punters drinking next door, when they weren’t masked by thrumming guitars and fitting Latino-style music.

Director Andy McQuade draws great pacing and nicely underplayed moments of tension from the generally strong cast, in a piece which boldly explores sexual desire and gender.

The characters are compelling: why is Chunga content to be alone? Is it because, as she suggests, falling in love makes you weak? Her excellent seduction scene with Meche is both intense and touching, even if you can’t be sure whether it really happened or not.

Plus it still seems bold, even in the 21st Century, to see women kiss on stage – one of several reasons it’s hard to believe La Chunga‘s not been snapped up by British theatre-makers sooner.

– Vicky Ellis