Commissioned work by Lukas Rietzschel | Comedy based on Anton Chekhov | PREMIERE
Schauspiel Leipzig
After each performance, a post-performance discussion with artistic director and director Enrico Lübbe, author Lukas Rietzschel, head dramaturge Torsten Buß and actor Tilo Krügel as well as after the second performance with other members of the theatre ensemble
Two new housing estates, sharply juxtaposed. Rows of detached houses with carports, glaringly bright street lamps. But between them stands an old house in its overgrown garden. A family meets in this garden to discuss what to do with this old house: they could finally renovate it properly. They could rent it out as a holiday home with a garden. Or sell it to the property developers in the neighbourhood.
But behind all the good suggestions lurk entangled questions: Who in the family would want to move in there themselves? Who would look after the holiday home? And who would be entitled to the money from the sale? Emotions and memories confront a new reality, and gradually the family debate becomes blurred: How intact or broken is the house really? How many square metres does the property really have? And: didn't we already experience today yesterday?
Once upon a time there was a magnificent cherry orchard. The most beautiful in the whole district, it was even mentioned in travel guides. But it had no future, because the family that had owned it for so long was broke. The cherry orchard was sold and cut down: the whole area was divided into plots. This is what Anton Chekhov wrote in 1904 in his last play "The Cherry Orchard", to which he added the subtitle "A Comedy". A tragic comedy about wasted opportunities and the value of memories.
In 2025, Lukas Rietzschel is now devoting himself to the legacy of this cherry orchard: the last of the plots has survived to this point. Once again, the house is the subject of possibilities and emotions, and once again the subtitle is "A Comedy". A comedy about the changing times and dealing with reality: "One plus one equals two; that's an obvious thing."- "For some, not anymore."
Lukas Rietzschel is an author who lives in Görlitz. He is one of the defining literary voices of his generation. After "Mit der Faust in die Welt schlagen", he recently published the novel "Raumfahrer". His first play "Widerstand" was commissioned by Schauspiel Leipzig in 2021, "Das beispielhafte Leben des Samuel W." for the Görlitz-Zittau Theatre was invited to the Autor:innentheatertage at the Deutsches Theater Berlin in 2024 and to the Heidelberger Stückemarkt and Mülheimer Theatertage in 2025. In 2022, Rietzschel was honoured with the Saxon Literature Prize for "Widerstand" and other plays.
Girschkarten is directed by Enrico Lübbe, director of Schauspiel Leipzig, who is once again premiering a text by Lukas Rietzschel after "Widerstand". Lübbe's team once again includes Teresa Vergho for the costume design, who has worked at the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Thalia Theater Hamburg, the Burgtheater in Vienna and the opera houses in Geneva and Lyon, among others, and Peer Baierlein for the musical design, who most recently worked at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and the Volkstheater Wien as well as giving concerts with the South Quartet.
Stroboscopic lighting is used in this production.
This is a continuous multi-day event
