“Love, we have to talk”: this is how you live behind the scenes of the work of Julián Zucchi and Natalia Salas

Who has not thought badly before the famous phrase: “Love we have to talk”? And it is that either because of the society in which we live or because of the culture that surrounds us, full of prejudices and stereotypes, this request used in most cases by couples, is synonymous with fear, failure and everything negative that can come in our head at that moment.

Today “Love we have to talk” is also the name of the play they star in from April 7 at the theater Pirandello, Julian Zucchi and Natalia Salas under the direction of Christian Ysla, and that in a comedic tone aims to expose, make fun of the stereotypes imposed on men and women and raise awareness, why not, through a series of comic situations with a social background to take into account.

“One of the premises of the work and one of the reasons why I wrote it is that I really question the fact that conflict prevails in couple relationships. So when one says:Love we have to talk” oops! it’s conflict, it’s fight, when it should mean: Hey, let’s get together! Let’s get in touch!” Ysla tells us in an interview with this newspaper minutes before the avant premiere of the work.

Serene during the last day of rehearsal, Ysla gives the last instructions to Julián and Natalia, while writing down details of what the work may lack or have left over on her tablet. Sitting on an old sofa at the Pirandello, Ysla also reveals to us that she was his wife, a fundamental pillar in the writing of the script.

“I have a vision of things, unfortunately still sexist and my wife is a feminist. So, when I proposed some scenes, she told me: you’re missing here, you’re seeing it from the side of the male. Then she turned the situation around”.

The thrill of the first time

For Julián Zucchi, “Love, we have to talk” has a special flavor and it is the first work he has done for The producers. “When they called me from Los Productores, which is a company that I admire a lot because I think they have been making a great contribution to the theater, it was a difficult moment, I was with the film (“We married? Yes, my love”) and “I am”. Just in January, I read the script and said: I have to accept whatever. So here I am learning a lot with Christian.” The Argentine actor tells us while he jokes in front of the mirror about the speed with which he dresses and shows us several of the underwear models he keeps in his dressing room for a particular scene of the play.

about chemistry with Natalia SalasJulián says he feels very comfortable working with the Peruvian actress. “She is a good partner and that is very important on stage. I always tell people that the theater not only trains you as an actor but that it is a moment of community that if you don’t solve something in a second up there, the play goes to shit”.

“Travel through self-criticism”

Relaxed while putting on makeup, Natalia Salas speaks proudly of the play, the first she stars in for The Producers, and reveals that the phrase “Love, we have to talk” is currently a beautiful phrase for her because of the good time she is going through with her partner Sergio Coloma.

“The beauty of the work is that it makes you go through self-criticism. Because we go through moments of comedy but, let’s say that the vindication of the work is that if you talk, if you talk, you will have a better time and that is interesting. I am in that process of my life, happily, in which ‘Honey, we have to talk’ is not a scare but rather an ‘ok’, we talk to solve conflicts because I think that in the end you have to know that the person with whom that you are not your enemy. It is as the work says, your battle partner with whom you face life, the tedium of everyday life”.

A first leading role, a dream come true

Ten minutes before going on stage, Natalia cannot hide the emotion caused by this first leading role. “It is a dream come true”, he reveals to us. “This theater is beautiful and I had dreamed of being in it all my life…”, he adds while joking with the gigantography outside the theater: “My face is out and gigantic, besides”.

The theater after the pandemic

It is no secret to anyone that theater was one of the arts hardest hit by the pandemic. For the protagonists of this work, this return is experienced in a particular way.

“I believe that everything happens when it has to happen, theater is becoming beautiful, little by little, and we have to support it”, Natalia tells us. Julián for his part describes this return to the stage as a great responsibility. “You have to convince the public again. The same thing happened to me with the movie. People weren’t going to the theaters and it’s the same here…”

Finally, Ysla goes further and asks to rethink what we have experienced during the pandemic regarding the theater that, faced with difficulty, reinvented itself and found a channel to express itself in the virtual.

“I believe that everything we experienced during that time of the pandemic should rebound from us now, because if not two years were thrown away. I don’t think it was like that, they were two different years, in which we had to adapt in a way and in which there was also an audience”.

The actor, director and producer defends the face-to-face essence of theater but clarifies that “it is no longer just that” what keeps it going. “the art of representation is much more. I think it can have many ways of being and living because the day may have come when they tell us: the pandemic will never end and then what do I do? I’m dying? I can’t, I have to see other ways to… and so let’s value what we have now, ”she muses, seconds before the third call.

THE TOKEN

LOVE, WE NEED TO TALK / PIRANDELLO THEATER

Cast: Natalia Salas and Julián Zucchi

Written and Directed by Christian Ysla

Performances: Thursday through Saturday at 8:30 pm and Sunday at 7 pm.

Tickets can be purchased at: https://losproduceres.pe/