Direction: Ariel Efraim Ashbel / Assistant direction: Katharina Joy Book / By and with: Thelma Buabeng, Jessica Gadani, Colin Hacklander, Tatiana Saphir / Costume design assistance: Margarita Rozhkowa / Stage and Costumes: Alona Rodeh / Composition: Farahnaz Hatam / Light: Joseph Wegmann / Creative Production: Anna von Glasenapp / high expectations / Production assistance: Isak Myrberg Dahle / Graphic design: Avi Bohbot / Social Media: Dan Kanin / Surtitles: Barbara Wiebking
Ariel Efraim Ashbel and friends
My Kingdom for a Joke
- Performance
German /
English /
with German and English surtitles /
with sound description /
approx. 80 mins.
Accompanied by live music and using improvisation, clowning and sketch comedy, “My Kingdom For a Joke” searches for moments of genuine hilarity. On a simple stage with expressive costumes, the performers risk everything for an honest moment and show how shared laughter can unite us and remind us that we're all in this together.
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 desperation, we are calling on a joke to help us redeem the theater as a place of possibility in a bleak reality.
“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.
Cast
Dates
Past
Further Information
Visitor note
Notes:
20.+21.9.: Combi ticket “My Kingdom for a Joke” and “RUNNIN’” by Joana Tischkau >> here
Credits
Production: Ariel Efraim Ashbel and friends. Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer, FFT Düsseldorf, Kampnagel Hamburg. Supported by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, Fonds Darstellende Künste funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Location
HAU1
Stresemannstr. 29, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Access to the Parkett by means of a separate entrance with lift when necessary. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available.
