By: Yasmin Hassan, Staff Writer
What makes urban landscapes so unique in every city and dwelling around the world and in Vancouver? This is one of many questions that director and producer Pamela Subia prods at in her play, Naked City. The Peak had the pleasure of chatting with Subia about her play, and how it was influenced by her experiences adjusting to a new city.
An SFU alumni who graduated with a degree in engineering, Subia “always wanted to be an artist but didn’t have time.” After finishing school in 2022 and finding a full-time job, Subia was finally able to delve into the wonders of art, as she always wanted. Naked City is Subia’s first play. Having coincidentally contributed to The Peak during her time at SFU, she took interest in the arts by attending events and surrounding herself with people from arts backgrounds, like the MFA program, and joining clubs. “SFU really helped me have the resources to become more than just an engineer,” Subia said. “Kind of like seeing how I could be more than just my degree.”
Coming from Ecuador and arriving in Vancouver at 18 years old, Subia noted that in Latin America, people are “super close and a little intrusive in each other’s lives.
“In Vancouver, I feel like there’s a me that I am when I am in Vancouver. And then there’s like, how I become when I enter a new city.” — Pamela Subia, director and producer
“There’s a little more distance,” Subia said of Vancouver. “People are more reserved, there’s a little bit more asking before everything.”
Subia’s play explores how the dynamics of cities change effortlessly, as if the people affect the city and the city affects the people. “People idolize cities.” She added, “When you’re in France, people talk about people from Paris. When you’re in Spain, people talk about people from Madrid. And my country, people talk about people from Quito and people from Guayaquil. So there’s kind of this idea of how people are in certain cities.
“In Vancouver, I feel like there’s a me that I am when I am in Vancouver. And then there’s like, how I become when I enter a new city,” Subia added. “What is the source? Who created that identity for every city, and why are we doing that?”
When she first came to the Lower Mainland, Subia tended to stay on Burnaby Mountain while living in residence. “It was just: dining hall to my room, then hanging out with my friends.” Because she didn’t leave campus, Vancouver “didn’t exist” to her.
“You meet this new group of people and it’s now interesting, and then you feel lonely and then it’s not interesting anymore,” noted Subia when relishing her self exploration of the city. Although she was enchanted by the surrounding nature we have here in the Coast Salish territories, when Subia began engaging in the social scene of the city like going to “events, going to gigs, going to theatre,” she tried something she was missing out on.
The play all started when a friend of Subia’s told her that the Fringe Festival was a lottery, which prompted Subia to put her name in the ballot.
The play is a medley of all sorts of literal and metaphorical ideas. Influences from the likes of Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams and the Ecuadorian tradition of los años viejos — masked dolls that are burned at midnight every year to celebrate the new year — and so much more. Though I could’ve dissected more about the influences and themes, Subia was careful not to spoil too much of the play, and for good reason! It’s one thing to read the inside scoop, but something entirely different when actually witnessing the play in all of its glory.
Check out Naked City at Performance Works from September 5 to 15.
