Lucy Komisar
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“Archduke” a clever take on how assassination of Archduke Ferdinand could have transpired. Nov 11, 2025 - Dec 21, 2025. Rajiv Joseph’s “Archduke” at the Roundabout is a surreal and entertaining take on an attempt to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand of Serbia organized by a soi-dissant military leader who wants to derail the Austro-Hungarian empire and achieve Serbian independence and Slavic unification. Joseph is masterful at historical plays, and this is directed with a combination of realism and absurdity by Darko Tresnjak, who was born and raised in Zemun where some of the action takes place. “Captain” Dragutin Dimitrijevic (Patrick Page who dominates the role as if he were an Elizabethan general–think of one of the Richards) recruits the killers from among down-at-the-heels young men (Jake Berne as Gavrilo, Jason Sanchez as Nedeljko, Adrien Rolet as the slightly more worldly Trifko, all fine in their desperation) whom a doctor in on the plot has told will die of TB in a month or so. They meet in an abandoned cellar full of large wooden barrels. They are all cast-offs. Patrick Page as Dragutin ‘Apis’ Dimitrijevic, Jason Sanchez as Nedeljko, Adrien Rolet as Trifko, Jake Berne as Gavrilo. Photo by Joan Marcus.
The youths are looking for meaning in life but meanwhile are so poor they fantasize about eating sandwiches. And the Captain propagandizes them about their waiting glory and place in history. Page, who is indeed a Shakespearean actor and speaks in a commanding deep bass, is imposing, brilliant in even a smaller role than his British royals. I began to think that this is how military chiefs brainwash the troops they will send to the slaughter. His cook (Kristine Nielsen) feeds them from a banquet groaning board and then some suspicious delicacies. Nielsen is perfect for the role with her usual funny, spacey, bizarre, weird shtick. Patrick Page as Dragutin ‘Apis’ Dimitrijevic, Jason Sanchez as Nedeljko, Adrien Rolet as Trifko, Jake Berne as Gavrilo, Kristine Nielsen as Sladjana. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Nielsen and Page are the highlights of the play. The story is more slapstick than thriller. The Captain describes how he disemboweled the King and Queen of Serbia and threw them out a window. The youths are wide-eyed. He says the world has conspired against them. In new suits, armed with a bomb and a couple of pistols, they get on a train with a sleeper car. They’ve never been on a train and the sleeper puts them over the moon. On the journey they begin thinking of what they might first do with an hour’s free time in Sarajevo, eat some sandwiches, visit a bordello. The assassination begins to be less enticing. Also the cyanide they must take after the deed. Adrien Rolet as Trifko, Jason Sanchez as Nedeljko, Jake Berne as Gavrilo. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Gavrilo escapes down a side street but the Archduke’s car takes the same route and he points his gun at the duke and his lady (Page and Nielsen) who plead for their lives. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb nationalist. He shot the archduke and his wife at close range during their motorcade after an earlier assassination attempt with a grenade had failed. You’ll have to see the play to find out how it ends!
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