Archduke
Finished Jun 4, 2017
Mark Taper Forum
Rajiv Joseph returns with a blackly comic look at the cause of WWI
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Rajiv Joseph's smart, savagely funny and visionary new work of American theater, whose presence on Broadway invites fanciful comparison to the titular beast.
The New York Times, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, 2011
Rajiv Joseph's smart, savagely funny and visionary new work of American theater, whose presence on Broadway invites fanciful comparison to the titular beast.
The New York Times, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, 2011
Finished Jun 4, 2017
Mark Taper Forum
Rajiv Joseph returns with a blackly comic look at the cause of WWI
Finished Jun 4, 2017
Mark Taper Forum
Rajiv Joseph returns with a blackly comic look at the cause of WWI
Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie Award winner Rajiv Joseph makes a welcome return to the Mark Taper forum with a world premiere drama, that takes us back to the cause of the First World War. Looking behind the headlines of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination, and the events leading up to it, the troubling rise of nationalism and terrorism draws similar and worrying parrallels with today's global populism. Shot through with Joseph 's characteristic black humor, we are invited to ask ourselves; what gives a country its identity?
Known for his ability to represent larger themes within human characters, as demonstrated in his 2011 hit Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, the desperate and alienated populace of Serbia in 1914 are represented by three young men, who are all dying of TB. Viewed as expendable and with nothing to lose, this makes them perfect fodder for a shadowy organisation called The Black Hand, to carry out their shocking and nefarious plot that later plunges all of Europe into war.
By Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Giovanna Sardelli
Scenic Design by Tim Mackabee
Costume Design by Denitsa Bliznakova
Lighting Design by Lap Chi Chu
Music and Sound by Daniel Kluger