Emilia was Walter’s nanny. After not having seen each other for twenty years, a chance encounter brings them together once again, and the young man, now a well-off adult, brings her into his household to help her with the economic difficulties she is going through. Giulia Lazzarini returns to the Piccolo in the title role of the piece written and directed by Claudio Tolcachir, an actor, playwright and director well-known on the contemporary Argentinian scene.

It is a story of contrasting family ties and appearances which hide disturbing secrets. A blend of drama and comedy, Emilia is an analysis of the relationship between reality and memories of the past, with the inevitable effect of the denial of less-pleasant memories, which are cancelled or sweetened. But it is also a ruthless analysis of the family and its internal relations. It is the very arrival of the old nanny which brings into question the family relationships, appearances and smiles. Emilia becomes the protagonist of this family drama which leads to a disturbing ending.

The piece was born from an autobiographical event: “I started writing Emilia - explains Tolcachir - following a meeting, many years later, with a woman who had been my nanny when I was a little boy. She remembered so much about me that I had completely forgotten and this set off a kind of sense of guilt in me for this unbalanced love. I have always been moved by those people who have a role in which they choose to dedicate themselves completely to others. The character of Emilia needs to take care of others”.

The founder of the Timbre 4 company, Tolcachir regularly presents his plays both in his home town of Buenos Aires and in cities throughout the world. In 2012, at the Piccolo Teatro, he presented Il caso della famiglia Coleman and, in 2015, the original-language version of Emilia.