Created for the Festival d'Avignon, Tiago Rodrigues' interpretation of Chekhov's last play, La Cerisaie, breaks the fourth wall and brings the audience together around the great challenges of today. After long years spent in exile in Paris, Lyubov, played by the legendary French actress, Isabelle Huppert, returns to her ancestral estate, about to be sold to pay off the family's debts, signaling the arrival of a new era. With a minimalistic approach to the stage, actors, the plots and the text tightly form the core of the work. Pacing the performance to allegro vivace, the director explores "the inescapable power of change" and the ensuing anxiety and impact as well as the hopes any new world carries within.

Text / Anton Tchekhov

Translation / André Markowicz, Françoise Morvan

Director / Tiago Rodrigues

Artistic Collaboration / Magda Bizarro

Stage Design / Fernando Ribeiro

Lighting Design / Nuno Meira

Costume Design / José António Tenente

Make-up & Hair / Sylvie Cailler, Jocelyne Milazzo

Music / Hélder Gonçalves (composition), Tiago Rodrigues (lyrics)

Sound / Pedro Costa

Assistant Director / Ilyas Mettioui

Performers / Isabelle Huppert, Isabel Abreu, Tom Adjibi, Nadim Ahmed, Suzanne Aubert, Marcel Bozonnet, Alex Descas, Adama Diop, David Geselson, Laure Mathis, Grégoire Monsaingeon, Alison Valence

Musicians / Manuela Azevedo, Hélder Gonçalves

Set Construction / Ateliers du Festival d'Avignon

Costumes made by / Ateliers du TNP de Villeurbanne

Production / Festival d'Avignon

Co-production / Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, Théâtre Nacional Dona Maria II, Théâtre National Populaire de Villeurbanne, Comédie de Genève, La Coursive - scène nationale de la Rochelle, Wiener Festwochen, Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand, National Taichung Theater, Teatro di Napoli - Teatro Nazionale, Fondazione Campania Dei Festival - Compania Teatro Festival, Théâtre de Liège, Holland Festival, International Theater Amsterdam

Premiere in July 2021 in the frame of the 75th Festival d'Avignon, then on tour between December 2021 and March 2023.