About the work
Der Girschkarten is a comedy by Lukas Rietzschel that freely transposes motifs from Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (1904) to present-day Germany, with newly invented characters and plot. It was commissioned by Schauspiel Leipzig, where Enrico Lübbe directed the world premiere in the Diskothek venue on 27 November 2025. The rights are handled by S. Fischer Verlag.
Plot
An old house with an overgrown garden now sits squeezed between new housing estates with carports and motion sensors. The grandmother, her sons Peter and Alexander, Peter's girlfriend Dunja, his daughter Anja and her boyfriend Anton gather there to settle whether the property should be renovated, let as holiday accommodation or sold to developers; the grandmother does not want to sell. Instead of reaching a decision, the family argues about plot measurements, the state of the house and their shared past until they cannot even agree on simple facts, and the neighbour gets involved as well.
Cultural significance
Critics, including nachtkritik.de and Die Deutsche Bühne, largely praised the premiere, above all for the way Rietzschel links Chekhov's stagnation and fear of loss with present-day themes such as nostalgia, a disintegrating shared reality and urban sprawl. In 2026 the play was one of seven works nominated for the Mülheim Dramatists' Prize.