‘Sophia’ (Working Title) a 10 minute preview of 1 Woman Show by La MaMa theater resident, Sophia Gutchinov

Love Is An Illusion???

During the Memorial Day weekend at the Theater for the New City in the Lower East Side of Manhattan here in New York City, an artist who thought she found love but ended up buying a bag off Canal Street named Sophia Gutchinov, gave a preview of her one woman show that the theater resident of La MaMa is currently working on, with the working title, “Sophia”, giving us an idea about the mirage that’s unfortunately love sometimes in precious fake items posing as famous names without absolute verification. The soloist play is a multimedia work told through ceremony and the discovery of one’s roots.

Enter “Sophia”, whose Mongolian and Italian roots run deep, with absolute love and trauma, “Sophia” uses her Mongolian warrior-like philosophy and culture to tell the story about her journey of finding love, and how it all turned out to be just a fake handbag made at a nearby factory, posing as a Louis Vuitton; love can come in all forms, it can be at the truest sense, a superficial love, or a deep understanding of each other, but love can end up just a mirage, which “Sophia” unfortunately experienced.

Much like buying a Louis Vuitton bag on Canal Street, it’s not real, which “Sophia” used to compare her love dilemma, “Sophia” fell in love with a guy despite there apparently being red flags, “Sophia” gets excited about this guy wanting to get to know her more, but encounters push back from the guy she thinks she’s in love with, “Sophia” keeps giving the guy the benefit of the doubt, but sees through his lying story of no MTA trains going into Manhattan, just by knowing what’s running on the MTA, though “Sophia” appreciates the guy’s honesty of not being in proper love space, her love lets her down again.

Finally, “Sophia” has enough, as time go by, and a brand-new phone enters “Sophia’s” life, “Sophia” wonders who’s texting her when her supposed love of her life re-emerges after ghosting “Sophia”, “Sophia” has no clue who it is, she then says it’s the guy she met on the app, “Sophia” reiterates to her love turned sham that he ghosted her, dropped off the face of the Earth, then challenges her former fake love to meet her up at a rooftop bar to talk, “Sophia” says the guy doesn’t know what he wants, but delivers him an ultimatum about meeting her, or just losing her number for good.

Sophia Gutchinov is an accomplished actress and artist who currently has a theater residency at La MaMa Experimental Theatre, her work includes sketch comedy in “How to New York”, and a workshop of the La MaMa theater piece that expresses Sophia’s frustration with love back in April 2022, which Daniel Plus Lauren saw and wrote about.

“Sophia” (Working Title) is a prelude to a full-fledged one woman show Sophia Gutchinov is working on with La MaMa Experimental Theater, you can donate to support Sophia’s show by clicking on the link here.

Daniel Quintanilla