“Substitution”: home-made youth theater

A construction site product of the reflection that forced the pandemic: the interpreter is in a room, immersed in a dream, accompanied by furniture, written papers, flowers and a series of eyes around her, while she questions whether there is a way to escape. The work is called “Substitution” and was written in 2021 by Paula Bruce, a PUCP Literature student.

“I made ‘Substitución’ for a specific, small and intimate place: the place where I’ve lived all my life (…) I wrote it while Vania and I were rehearsing, thinking about how to situate the words in time and space. The inspiration was to find the point in common between two individuals, the possibility of taking the place of another, of putting shoes on it. Several metaphors in relation to the concept of ‘substitution’: her flower and her shadow, the mother and the daughter, the writer and the performer”, reveals the young creator about her debut feature.

The actress is Vania Cisneros, a PUCP theater student, who debuted in this play at the beginning of March, in six intimate performances, for 20 spectators. Mounted in the living room of a home, both artist and director had to connect with “the inevitable vulnerability that the bodily closeness of the public and the performer produces”.

Co-directed by Francesca Peri (UPC Performing Arts), the young university team has scheduled three more face-to-face functions: Tuesday 22, Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 March, at 8 pm Tickets are sold via the Instagram of @mirateatrolima or writing to [email protected].