Roundabout’s revival is sharp in moments but lighter than the history that powers it.
Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke, now at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre, takes on the three young Bosnian Serb men whose actions helped ignite World War I. Joseph, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, approaches their confusion and hunger for purpose with humor and a touch of absurdity. The idea is intriguing, but the play often assumes the audience will bring the weight of the actual history with them. That assumption softens the production’s urgency. A quick reminder never hurts. Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Archduchess Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo, and their deaths set off the chain of events that led to the war.
Darko Tresnjak directs with visual precision. The stage pictures are clean and the period details are careful, but the pacing stays mild. Scenes move from idea to idea without escalating tension. In the second act, the boys are brought to the ornate dining room of Dragutin “Apis” Dimitrijevic to rehearse their attack. They are recruited by a ghetto doctor because their tuberculosis leaves them hopeless and their youth leaves them persuadable. They can be talked into believing that dying as Serbian heroes is better than the death that awaits them. Their energy rises, but the characters do not develop.
The cast works hard within these limits. Jake Berne as Gavrilo, Adrien Rolet as Trifko, and Jason Sanchez as Nedeljko keep the boys grounded in simple, direct impulses. Their characters are not written for real change, and the actors do not push them beyond what the script supports. Patrick Page as Dragutin “Apis” Dimitrijevic gives the evening its strongest pulse. The role is a philosophic histrionic, and Page moves between calm authority and near ecstatic zeal with a steady, unsettling confidence. Kristine Nielsen’s Sladjana alternates between comic relief and church philosophizing, but she never quite lands either. The idea behind the character is interesting. The execution keeps slipping away.
Joseph’s script has moments of wit and flashes of insight, but it is more interested in its own cleverness than in the consequences that made this story matter. The result is a play that is easy to follow and hard to care about. The boys imagine futures they will never reach, and the production hints at what the evening could have been. It never gathers enough force to make its final beat land.
Now Playing:
Archduke runs at the Laura Pels Theatre, 111 West 46th Street, New York, NY 10036, through December 22, 2025.
Tickets and information at roundabouttheatre.org.
© Adam Josephs 2025
