Toneelgroep Maastricht - Oom Wanja

In the spring of 2026, director Michel Sluysmans and writer Peer Wittenbols will join forces for a renewed and sparkling version of one of the most famous plays in theater literature: Anton Chekhov's Oom Wanja. Jeroen Spitzenberger plays the title role in this serious comedy about unfulfilled desires, tight family ties, failed lives and especially: a lot of heartbreak.

Uncle Wanja and his niece Sonja have been working hard all their lives on the farm estate of Sonja's father, who works as a professor in the big city. When the professor returns to the estate after his retirement with his much younger second wife, Elena, relationships begin to shift and unspoken desires surface. Wanja falls in love with Elena, who in turn arouses the passion of the alcoholic village doctor Astrov, who is silently desired by Sonja. To make matters worse, the professor announces his intention to sell the estate, destroying Wanja's life's work. Uncle Vanya is a moving and witty lament about missed opportunities and transience. All the characters yearn for love, but they yearn in vain. They yearn for meaning, but their existence is meaningless. They are disappointed in their lives but fail to turn that life around.

'If you don't have a real life you have to make do with illusions. That's always better than nothing.'

After previous successful stagings of A Seagull (2022) and The Cherry Garden (2023), director Michel Sluysmans brings with Uncle Vanya another contemporary interpretation of one of Chekhov's masterpieces. The characters in Uncle Vanya mourn their past, dream of a future that will never come, and are meanwhile stuck in an unbearable here and now. Each of them wants to change their lives. They just don't know how. It is inevitable that the audience will recognize themselves.

Credits
With:Jeroen Spitzenberger, Jan-Paul Buijs, Jaap Spijkers,
Wendell Jaspers, Myrthe Huber, Anneke Blok, Emil Szarkowicz
Text:Peer Wittenbols after Anton Chekhov
Directed by Michel Sluysmans
Music by Emil Szarkowicz