Published: 27 January, 2012

HE has written scores of novels, ran for the presidency of Peru in the 1990s, is a Nobel laureate and is lauded throughout the Spanish- speaking world.

But on Tuesday, writer, journalist and sometime politician Mario Vargas Llosa (pictured) looked no different from any other member of the small audience at the UK premiere of his 1986 play La Chunga.

Mr Llosa, who came to London to see the production at the Phoenix Artist Club, an inconspicuous fringe venue in Charing Cross Road, said he tries to see as many productions of his work around the world as possible.

He added that the Phoenix was “a natural environment” for La Chunga, which is set in a “primitive” drinking den in 1950s Peru.

Mr Llosa’s best-known works include Conversation In The Cathedral, The War of the End of the World and The Feast of the Goat.

He is also well known for being a party in what has been called one of the most famous literary feuds of modern times – a bust-up with former friend and fellow titan of South American literature Gabriel García Márquez, who he allegedly punched in the eye in the 1970s. The two have apparently not spoken a word to each other since.

Mr Llosa won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010.

• La Chunga runs at the club at 104-110 Charing Cross Road, WC2 from January 24 to February 19.