Contempory Mime: Mutation at Colour House Theatre, South Wimbledon

The Chilean is bringing his new contemporary mime piece Mutation to the Colour House Theatre next Thursday, and he has some strong views about his role in the world.

"I am essentially a creator and I have consciously chosen to innovate and create my own style, which I refer to as contemporary mime," says the 40-year-old.

"It does not pretend to please scholars, but rather aims to touch the public, for it is the public who deserve our effort and whom in turn we need to prevent our work from remaining an act steeped in itself.

"I wish to become a bridge for communication, I feel the urgency to wake up in this time of folly, intolerance and ignorance.

"Waking up from the state of emotional and intellectual idleness which rules our age is not a mere fancy but an urgency, which I believe can be addressed through the medium of art."

Gaete's journey into mime began in 1998 when he met Angel Elizondo, the father of Latin American mime at the Latin American Congress and Festival of Mime in Buenos Aires.

He went on to study with the master before performing his first one-man piece, Mole-morphosis, in 2003.

A year later he moved to England and has performed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and County Hall Gallery - where he performed as Salvador Dali in the exhibition Dali Universe.

Mutation is his latest creation of metaphorical body on stage, which he will be performing as part of Colombian International Mime Festival Medellin in November.

"It's a solo contemporary mime performance and physical theatre," he says.

"It charts all the changes which have happened in the human body and the human psyche and puts them into a physical context.

"For an actor it is a dramatical piece but covers dance, theatre and mime."

Mutation, Colour House Theatre, Merton Abbey Mills, July 2, 8.30pm, £10.00. Call 020 8542 5511 colourhousetheatre.co.uk.