What wouldn’t we give for a good joke right now? The clothes off our backs, our dignity, the last bit of grant money, our kingdom! Just like Richard III, the Shakespearean antihero whose iconic call “my kingdom for a horse!” became an emblem of poetic, theatrical desperation, we are calling on a joke to help us redeem the stage as a place of possibility in a bleak moment.
“My Kingdom for a Joke” is an earnest examination of entertainment and humour through the lens of contemporary performance. While the tragedies of the world multiply to infinity and irony and resignation often seem like the only available responses, Ariel Efraim Ashbel and friends search for a genuine moment of joy, for humour as a community-building practice and as a bridge between the individual and the world. Inspired by the sparse stages of stand-up comedy, the set and light design is radically reduced, with whimsical costumes as the main visual element of the show. The performers’ craft takes centre stage: Accompanied by live music and using methods such as improvisation, clowning and sketch comedy, the seasoned jokesters Thelma Buabeng, Jessica Gadani, Colin Hacklander, and Tatiana Saphir approach the audience again and again with their very own contradictions and vulnerabilities, risking everything for a laugh. The possibility (probability!) of failure only amplifies the fun of it all: In every supposed mistake lies the chance for us to see each other as we really are – and take one little step closer to a sense of shared reality.
2025
Premiere: HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin
FFT Düsseldorf
