‘What do I wear?’ A play that invites us to review our closet with nostalgia

Life stories are built over time. With people, with objects, with books, with movies, with travel tickets, with clothes. Even those who consider care in dressing as frivolous have a garment to treasure: the baptismal dress that their grandmother knitted, their mother’s bridal headdress, their sister’s shoes, the promotion jacket, the baggy pants from the first pregnancy. . The relationship that we establish between clothing and memory is the premise and the constant in What do I wear?the play written with sensitive talent by the playwright Mariana Silva and directed, for the third time, by Norma Martinez.

What do I wear? —says the director— celebrates our ability to remember and choose from the endless archive of our memory. “It’s significant to go back to riding ‘What should I wear?’ In this context, after two years of the pandemic, it is also a commitment to rediscover who we were before confinement, where it was not relevant to ask ourselves this question. Today, when we return to the streets, to life, to work, the concern of knowing what to dress in appears once again: A dress from the past? What am I today? What I want to be? Something that represents the new me?” she adds.

It is unfair that concern about how to dress should be considered frivolous. Worse still: a frivolity typical of women. “Men also face proving their identity from how they dress. I believe that dressing ourselves has to do with who we are, with what we want to project. That is why we try to have special clothes for special days”, says Norma Martínez, who, for example, treasures a leather purse that belonged to her mother. “I couldn’t let him get rid of her, she’s beautiful. And she has a story, of travel, of who my mother was when she used it… it’s part of my own story,” she adds.

Third season

The play, staged from the beginning under the umbrella of Los Productores, was released to the public for the first time in 2015. Then the actresses summoned were Yvonne Frayssinet, Ebelin Ortiz, Vanessa Saba, Monserrat Brugué and Mayra Couto. For the second season, in 2016, Mayra Couto and Monserrat Brugué repeated the dish and Ana Cecilia Natteri, Magdyel Ugaz and Tula Rodríguez joined them.

In this new staging it features performances by Anahi de Cardenas, Ana Cecilia Natteri, Ebelin Ortiz, Fiorella Penanno and Montserrat Brugué. The season began on Thursday, February 3 and will continue until March 27. The performances are from Thursday to Saturday at 8:00 pm and on Sundays at 7:00 pm Tickets are on sale on the Producers page; and, to attend the function, it is requested to comply with health protocols that are also specified on the same website.

own stories

The actresses embody characters who tell stories based on the memories brought to them by going through a closet, their own or someone else’s. This, of course, also questions them about their own relationship with clothing.

Anahí de Cárdenas, for example, believes that clothes are just an excuse to talk about what happens to us. She, for example, treasures her grandmother’s handkerchiefs. “When my grandmother passed away, she kept all her scarves. She used them to tie her rollers tightly. When she gave me cancer, they were the ones I wore on my head throughout my treatment. It was like my grandmother was holding my head, helping me keep my sanity, just like she was holding her rollers,” she says.

Fiorella Penanno has a similar relationship with the clothes that once belonged to her mother or her aunts. “These are garments that have a special value because they are unique fabrics and that I keep to use on special occasions. Clothes from before were better made, lasted longer. Perhaps they did it with more affection and less capitalist desire, ”she reflects.

Ana Cecilia Natteri, for her part, confesses to being a follower of fashion and trends. “I greatly admire our Peruvian designers, especially when they incorporate elements, shapes, and textures from our rich culture into their creations, with the creativity of artisan hands. That makes me very proud,” she says.

At the antipodes is Monserrate Brugué, who considers that clothing defines you in some way, and for that reason he questions the attention he gives to his tastes and choices. “I think more about what suits me for work or for classes…almost always divers and nothing else,” he explains.

Along the same lines, Ebelyn Ortiz acknowledges that her closest relationship is with the clothes she wears to rehearsals. “I’m always thinking about my rehearsal clothes. Clothes are always a pretext to create”, she says.

And you, what clothes would you choose to tell your story?