Meeuw Het Nationale Theater / Nina Spijkers

TR25 Schouwburg

A family gathers at their holiday home. You follow their dreams and desires, but also witness their sorrow and jealousy. The young people try to make their own voices heard, but the older generation prefers to keep things as they are. Director Nina Spijkers brings Chekhov's comedy The Seagull to life in a new way. You see Jaap Spijkers, Tamar van den Dop, Emma Buysse, and Alex Hendrickx, among others, in a painfully recognizable clash between two generations.

Clash between two generations

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

Old plays, new roles

Just 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 if it was written yesterday. They remain Chekhov’s words, but now with even more powerful female roles and more avenues for humor.”

Live and dangerously funny

Director Nina Spijkers shows with a new, bold perspective how alive and dangerously funny Chekhov can be: “Chekhov is one of my favorite writers, because he is perhaps the best analyst of the human soul who has ever written for the stage. He called his play a comedy. I am very much looking forward to capturing that lightness on stage.”