Ricardo Darín takes to the stage of the Coliseum theater to perform, along with Andrea Pietra, Scenes from married life, by Ingmar Bergman. It is the fourth time that he has stopped with this production in Barcelona, and there has not been a fifth because the pandemic prevented it. The two Argentine actors present the story of a couple who end up having a better relationship as friends after separating than when they were together. The Swedish author premiered it as a series in 1973.
Why does he perform the same work for so long?
Especially because I love this work for two reasons. I love the piece itself, that's why we hold it and accompany it whenever we can. And the other is my passion for theater. Now I'm filming a series and that is not exactly the area in which the actor feels most comfortable, because the theater is our most nutritious area. I think it is up on stage where we constantly test ourselves. Working on the same text gives you the opportunity to delve into it a little more, and understand or reinterpret things that you thought you had understood and perhaps that is not always the case.
He has been with this production for ten years, but he has not yet broken the record of Art, by Yasmina Reza, with whom he toured for twelve years.
Ten years with interruptions, and that makes you a little anxious about doing it again. I also love this piece because it is not complacent. I define it as an uncomfortable comedy, because it pushes the viewer to review themselves, to look inward, immersed in a structure that has a lot of humor.
Uncomfortable with humor?
Yes, because we laugh precisely at the things that make us nervous. The piece is quite acidic, and I don't want to imagine what it must have been like the first time Bergman presented it. It must have generated stupor, because my character can be treated or conceived as a kind of scoundrel, but in reality not only is that not the case, but he also has something very in his favor, which is that he has a brutal sincerity.
Does that uncomfortable laughter occur because they are everyday situations, experienced more or less by many couples?
What produces it is the possibility of identifying or not with what is said on stage. But all of us, if we haven't said something similar, have heard something similar or know of someone close to us who has gone through similar situations. How to react to known conflicts is what gives us perspective.
The two plays mentioned talk about intimate things, such as friendship and relationships. In cinema, however, his last film was Argentina, 1985, a political story, at the other extreme.
They are different universes, even though they often contain each other. There is a topic that always seems attractive or close to me and that fills me with questions, which is tolerance among human beings or, consequently, intolerance. Art proposes a very intelligent game about intolerance to those who think differently, even among people who love each other very much, between close friends. If we move on to Scenes from Married Life, there is a lot of tolerance and intolerance of opinions regarding the marital structure.
What projects do you have now?
Right now I come from a series that is very physically demanding. We also had our theatrical commitment ahead of us, which was somewhat shortened due to my commitment to the series, but we wanted to fulfill it anyway. It is always a pleasure to do the theater tour, especially having a partner like Andrea, who is pure energy, a whirlwind, and who gives me that permanent push on the days when I am more tired and drag my feet a little. But I need to stop a little and recover, because I'm beaten all over, my legs are all scarred, because The Eternaluta, which is a science fiction miniseries, is action and I'm already a little big.
