A young, ambitious writer (Emma Buysse) presents her first play, with her partner (Alex Hendrickx) in the leading role. Together, they want to change the world with their production. Her father and his partner (Jaap Spijkers and Tamar van den Dop), themselves a renowned actor and writer, prefer to keep things as they were. Is there room for a new voice, or does the previous generation keep the door closed?

As with the classics The Taming of the Shrew and Coriolanus, director Nina Spijkers opts for a gender swap of several key roles: “By having women play male roles and vice versa, a 130-year-old play feels as though it was written yesterday. The words remain Chekhov’s, but now with even stronger female roles and more scope for humour.”

Director Nina Spijkers, with a new and bold perspective, shows how vibrant and dangerously funny Chekhov can be: “Chekhov is one of my favourite writers, because he may well be the greatest analyser of the human soul ever to have written for the stage. He called his play a comedy. I very much look forward to capturing that lightness on stage.”

• text Anton Tsjechov direction Nina Spijkers performance Gustav Borreman, Emma Buysse, Tamar van den Dop, Antoinette Jelgersma, Yamill Jones, Alex Hendrickx, Yela de Koning, Anniek Pheifer & Jaap Spijkers