Switching from networking to netplan

I am switching from Ubuntu to Debian, but - as I can only access the VM via ssh - I very much miss the netplan try feature. Whenever I mess up the /etc/network/interfaces, I am out and need help from the hoster. Installing netplan on Debian Buster is simple enough (apt install netplan.io), but whatever I then do to the /etc/netplan/*.yaml file, it seems to have no effect. When I try the new configuration (via netplan try) it says that the new configuration would be in effect, but ip address says that it is not. So my question is: How do I actually switch control over the network interfaces over from networking to netplan?