We had an orchard

Opening date: October 20, 2023
Duration: 2h 20′

We Had an Orchard is a weaving together of a classic play – The Cherry Orchard (1903), the final work of A.P. Chekhov (1860–1903) – and a contemporary text, a companion piece as an aesthetic exploration around the theme of theatre, as Yann Verburgh explains.

Eugen Jebeleanu: “We tried, on one hand, to preserve the Chekhovian inspiration and the spirit of the century in which the original was written, and at the same time to bring into the 1990s – the era in which Yann’s text is set – an aesthetic as close as possible to that period. We are not creating a performance to pay tribute to a particular type of writing, even though I find it extremely valuable, but rather working with Chekhov, in dialogue with Chekhov. Essentially, we are taking a dramatic material and trying to create a story that speaks about us, today, about who we are, the problems we face, the questions we ask ourselves.”

After graduating in Acting from UNATC – Bucharest and completing a Master’s degree in Directing and Dramaturgy in Paris, Eugen Jebeleanu dedicated his career to directing theatre, opera, and more recently, film. In 2010, he co-founded “Compania 28” with playwright Yann Verburgh, and later, in 2017, “Cie des Ogres.” In recent years, he has collaborated with some of the most important theatres in Romania, including those in Sibiu and Bucharest. He has also directed numerous productions staged in France and Germany. In 2017, he directed Ogres, a project awarded by the Fédération d’Associations de Théâtre Populaire (FATP). For the performance Itinerarii. Într-o zi, lumea se va schimba (2019), he received the Best Director Award at the UNITER Awards Gala. He collaborated with the Lyon Opera for The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In 2020, he made his debut as a film director with the feature Poppy Field, which won Best Director at the 2021 TIFF Festival and Best Debut Film at the 2022 GOPO Awards. In 2022, he was awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Yann Verburgh

His plays are published in France by Quartett Editions and Solitaires Intempestifs, translated and performed in several languages, read at the Comédie Française, broadcast by France Culture, and recognized with numerous awards, grants, and opera adaptations. He responds to dramatic writing commissions, notably for the National Drama Centres of Caen, Valence, Béthune, and the Departmental Council of Seine-Saint-Denis. He also collaborates as a playwright and librettist with the National Opera of Lyon and co-leads “Cie des Ogres” with director Eugen Jebeleanu whom he accompanies as author or dramaturg in their creations.

In 2020, he completed a professional Master’s degree in screenwriting at Fémis – École nationale supérieure des métiers de l’image et du son. Since then, he has collaborated with Apaches Films as writer and director of his first short film Riad (selected and awarded in official competition at twenty film festivals across Europe and North America), as well as Rester Humain, his first feature film, currently in development.

In recent years, he has collaborated as an author in France and Switzerland with Munstrum Théâtre and Lionel Lingelser, Richard Brunel, Frédéric Fisbach, Olivier Letellier, and Collectif sur un Malentendu. His plays are programmed at Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Théâtre du Rond-Point, Théâtre National de Bretagne, Théâtre des Célestins in Lyon, and Comédie de Genève…