Archduke

“The play’s first half, is, quite simply, a banger. Taken as a whole, this darkly comic drama is very much a coup!” – The Recs

“An ambitious mix of history, comedy and tragedy… The scope of [Rajiv Joseph’s] imaginative ambition is always a tonic… Joseph tells a story about the men responsible for this momentous murder in his inimitable style blending rambunctious humor with a global conscience and an empathy that heeds no borders. The comic energy of the writing carries the characters to their tragic finish line!” – L.A. Times

“Rajiv Joseph, a playwright who loves delving through history, has imagined new life into Gavrilo Princip, the teenager who tipped Europe into World War I. But a great part of what gives Archduke its considerable theatrical oomph is, while heading straight for the tragedy, just how funny it is… We know where this story is headed, but Archduke’s engine isn’t plot; it’s character. The longer we spend with Gavrilo, Nedeljko and Trifko, the more we pity and even weirdly love them.” – Vulture

“Unexpectedly playful!... Wraps a cult-of-personality exploration around a political history parable about domestic terrorism set against the start of the first World War. Despite its subject matter, the play reaches for comedy throughout.” – San Francisco Examiner

“How do you make a comedy about the absurdity of modern terrorism? For bold, outside-the-box American playwright Rajiv Joseph, you set the satire a century earlier… Once again, Joseph has turned the spotlight of world history upon the comical, inadvertently profound side characters, except that in this case, small men who would have otherwise been forgotten grabbed the spotlight for themselves… It’s a frightening reminder [of] how easily any man can derail the path of progress.” – Variety