Beginning April 15, the Philadelphia-based theater company The Wilma Theater (265 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107), recipient of the 2024 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, presents the regional premiere of Archduke by award-winning playwright Rajiv Joseph. The Wilma’s visionary Founding Artistic Director Blanka Zizka returns to direct the dark comedy that imagines how three poor, sickly boys searching for meaning were manipulated into hate by a bombastic ideologue and inspired to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The event is historically viewed as the catalyst of World War I. The cast features Wilma HotHouse Acting Company members Melanye Finister, Sarah Gliko, Suli Holum, Brandon J. Pierce, and Steven Rishard. The regional premiere of Archduke runs from April 15 to May 4, with 21 performances presented in the Wilma’s 300- seat theater.
Joseph is a Brooklyn-based Pulitzer Prize Finalist and two-time Obie Award-winning playwright whose work has been hailed as “daring, magnificent, and virtuosic” by the Los Angeles Times. He quickly became one of the leading American playwrights thanks to his critically acclaimed and award-winning works, including Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Gruesome Playground Injuries, and Describe The Night. In 2017, his play Archduke received its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, which was praised by the Los Angeles Times as “an ambitious mix of history, comedy, and tragedy.” Since its world premiere, Joseph wrote a brand-new ending to Archduke provoked by Zizka that will appear in its upcoming presentation at the Wilma.
In Archduke, three destitute boys suffering from tuberculosis in Belgrade – Gavrilo Princip (Holum), Trifko Grabež (Gliko), and Nedeljko Čabrinović (Pierce) – are recruited by a mysterious organization with promises of glory, purpose, and a sandwich. Their depraved Captain (Rishard) sends the boys on a mission he claims will restore order and justice to their struggling nation, avenging the unfairness of their terminal illness. Their assignment? Assassinate the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie. Joseph’s play asks: What happens when a person feels they have nothing left to lose? What methods are acceptable in the fight against oppression?
Rajiv Joseph masterfully reinterprets a crucial historical event, creating an absurdist dark comedy that is both funny and poignant. Set just two days before Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, the play unveils the Serbian nationalist ideologies of the era—cries to reclaim national pride and former glories, expansionist aspirations, a culture of masculinity and entitlement, grievances, cruelty, and misogyny. The similarities in the rhetoric from that time to today’s U.S. Christian nationalism strike me as particularly provocative. – Blanka Zizka
The cast of Archduke comprises notable local stage actors and resident members of the Wilma’s acclaimed, award-winning HotHouse Acting Company, which Zizka founded in 2011. The company members meet weekly to train, read plays, and develop their artistry. Leading the cast of Archduke as the play’s recruits are Sarah Gliko as Nedeljko Čabrinović, Suli Holum as Gravrilo Princip, and Brandon J. Pierce as Trifko Grabež. Joining them are Steven Rishard, playing their debauched captain Apis, and Melanye Finister, playing his obstinate associate Sladjana.
Blanka Zizka served as the Founding Artistic Director of the Wilma Theater from 1981 to 2020. For years, Zizka developed practices and programs for local theater artists to create working conditions supporting creativity through continuity and experimentation. She has directed over 70 plays and musicals at the Wilma, including the U.S. premiere of Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem, world premiere of Paula Vogel’s Don Juan Comes Home from Iraq, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room, and Macbeth, which included an original score by Czech composer and percussionist Pavel Fajt. In 2020, Zizka became the theater’s Artistic Director Emeritus and passed the torch to the shared leadership team, which currently comprises Co-Artistic Directors Morgan Green, Lindsay Smiling, and Yury Urnov, and Managing Director Leigh Goldenberg.
On-Demand Streaming Presentation
Following the play’s in-person run, the Wilma offers an on-demand streaming presentation of Archduke, available from May 8 to June 1. Single Digital Tickets will be available for sale toward the end of the show’s in-person run and limited to audiences in Philadelphia. Tickets start at $35 and can be purchased at www.wilmatheater.org or by calling the Wilma’s box office at 215-546-7824.
If You Go
Archduke has an estimated 100-minute runtime with no intermission. The production is recommended for audiences 15 years or older.
Preview performances for Archduke are from Tuesday, April 15, to Thursday, April 17. The production opens with an invite-only performance on Friday, April 18, at 7 p.m. and runs through Sunday, May 4.
The Wilma also welcomes African American audiences to attend the Black Affinity Night on Friday, April 25, which offers “Pay-What-You Wilma” ticket prices.
The Wilma hosts a variety of ancillary events to further engage with audiences around its productions. Families can attend the Childcare Matinee on Saturday, April 26, at 2 p.m., during which paid childcare will be available in partnership with Music Theatre Philly (MTP). While patrons attend the matinee, MTP leads children through a musical theatre workshop that includes theatre games, an arts and crafts project, and a presentation of a whole production number.
Theatergoers can attend the Sunday, April 27 matinee for “The Let Out,” an insightful and lively post show conversation with production members held immediately after the performance. On Monday, April 28, at 7 p.m., attendees can participate in an Open Mic Night, where a host and cast members discuss the themes of Archduke. The April 24 and May 1 performances include a post-show Café Chat in the lobby with the cast and crew led by members of the artistic team.
Patrons can purchase single tickets at www.wilmatheater.org or by calling the Wilma’s box office at 215-546-7824.
