BY WOLFGANG BÖHMER (MUSIK) AND MARTIN G. BERGER (TEXT)
The cherry orchard is for sale! So, the second cherry orchard – here and now in Germany, 2025. This seems to be a good time for the whole family to come together once more, as so many memories are tied to it. But also to the first orchard, which stood in Namibia. It was planted by the great-grandfather who, as a colonialist, didn’t want to go without his Black Forest cherry cake. Varja is 37 and that happened before her time. Even her adoptive mother Andrea only knows the story from family lore, and her adoptive sister Anja, barely 20, wants nothing to do with it, rather focusing on her main goal: achieving an ideal work/life balance. Yet there are far more pressing matters at hand, like saving the crumbling family business, a burden that rests entirely on Varja’s shoulders. When Uncle Gerald, Andrea’s tenant Trofimov and Varja’s foster sister Lolo join the gathering, the stage is set for an emotionally charged family reunion…
For their new musical, author Martin G. Berger and composer Wolfgang Böhmer use Chekhov’s classic as a starting point to explore contemporary sociopolitical questions around ownership, inheritance, guilt, and generational justice. In doing so, they shy away neither from wit nor complexity. Böhmer leads the audience into a soundscape that shifts between shimmering tones and jazzy-chanson textures, featuring piano, double bass, bayan (an Eastern European accordion), and wind instruments.
Director Alexandra Liedtke – who staged DADDY UNPLUGGED at Neuköllner Oper in 2024 – once again brings out the human and interpersonal layers of the characters in all their complexity, revealing what remains unsaid.
DIRECTION Alexandra Liedtke MUSICAL DIRECTION Magnus Loddgard, Julius Windisch CHOREOGRAPHY Paul Blackman DRAMATURGY Dennis Depta SET DESIGN Philip Rubner ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / PRODUCTION MANAGER Cara Freitag
WITH Tina Ajala, Samuel Franco, Laura Goblirsch, Julia Klotz / Claudia Renner, Vasiliki Roussi / Franziska Junge, Markus Schöttl as well as the musicians Paul Brody / Nikolaus Neuser, Valentin Butt / Sanja Mlinaric, Rebecca Lawrence / Rosie Salvucci, Magnus Loddgard / Julius Windisch, Abigail Sanders and Christian Vogel
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