Mistress of Desires

A powerful exploration of machismo and sexual desire, by Peru's most acclaimed writer.

A Peruvian desert town in the 1940s. When a young girl disappears it seems that only La Chunga, the barwoman, knows the truth, but refuses to tell. Undeterred, the local men make up their own version of what happened in an attempt to extract the full story.

Mario Vargas Llosa's play Mistress of Desires (La Chunga) was written in 1985 and first staged in January 1986 in the Teatro Canout, Lima, Peru, by the Grupo Ensayo.

This English translation by Sebatian Doggart was first staged in February 1992 in Christ's Theatre, Cambridge University, by The Southern Development Trust.