The Jester's Wife
Shakes up history for a funny cocktail from the dark ages.
Knowledge Workings Theater
Proudly Presents the World Premiere of
“The Jester’s sense of humour, subverting words and spinning riddles, makes for a lively encounter, and the clash between the Jester’s self-preserving pragmatism and his Wife’s heroic idealism creates some interesting and entertaining moral discussions… lead[ing] to compelling questions as to who gets to shape the stories we tell.” - The Abbey Theater
THE JESTER’S WIFE
Shakes up history for a funny cocktail from the dark ages
Written and Directed by T.J. ELLIOTT
Starring XANDER JACKSON, WINNIE STACK, STEVE WEATHERBEE
THREE-WEEK LIMITED OFF-BROADWAY ENGAGEMENT
SEPTEMBER 21 – OCTOBER 8, 2023 AT 36TH STREET THEATER
OPENING NIGHT IS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 AT 7 P.M.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT EVENTBRITE
KNOWLEDGE WORKINGS THEATER LLC is pleased to announce the world premiere production of THE JESTER’S WIFE, directed by T.J. Elliott. THE JESTER’S WIFE will play a three-week limited engagement at the 36th Street Theater (312 W 36th St. 4th floor, New York, NY 10018). Performances begin Thursday, September 21 and continue through Sunday, October 8. Opening Night is Saturday, September 23 (7 p.m.). Tickets are $20 and available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-jesters-wife-a-comedy-for-the-dark-ages-tickets-667226461307
Stories of Dymphna, legendary medieval Irish Saint, recount her escape from her crazy wicked father accompanied by her Jester, and the Jester’s Wife. Spoiler alert: The Lives of the Saints tells us that the king pursues and beheads Dymphna “because she refused to consent to their brutish passion.” Yet none of these tales explain what became of the Jester and his Wife. Apparently, that couple survived to impart Dymphna’s legend, but no one has told their story. Until now.
THE JESTER’S WIFE, a Dark Ages comedy, follows the couple as confronted by evil and still afraid for their lives they now encounter other perils. Contemplating questions of survival, responsibility, and who gets to tell a story, this play effects an original blend of intelligent slapstick with medieval and distinctly Irish tinges as the Jester’s self-preserving pragmatism and his Wife’s heroic idealism spin out interesting and entertaining moral discussions. This darkly comic narrative of survivors guilt, myth making, martyrdom, and mayhem, mingle together, in ways, familiar to our present lives.
The production stars Steve Weatherbee (Pot Odds, SheNYC Theatre Festival) as Jester, stars Winnie Stack (@JennaFischer, Upright Citizens Brigade) as The Jester’s Wife, and stars Xander Jackson as Stranger.
The production features Technical & Artistic Direction by Gifford Elliott, scenic design and costume design by Elena Vannoni, scenic design by Gloria Novi, and lighting design by Taylor Lilly. Margaret Montagna is the sound designer and Kate Gavin is the stage manager. Publicity and Marketing consulting by Katie Rosin/Kampfire PR.
THE JESTER’S WIFE plays the following regular schedule through Sunday, October 8:
Wednesdays at 7 p.m.
Thursdays at 7 p.m.
Fridays at 7 p.m.
Saturdays at 7 p.m.
Sundays at 3 p.m.
Tickets are $20 and available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-jesters-wife-a-comedy-for-the-dark-ages-tickets-667226461307. They are also available at the theater a half hour prior to the performance.
Running Time: 95 minutes
Website: www.knowledgeworkings.com
BIOGRAPHIES
T.J. ELLIOTT (Playwright/Director) co-wrote 2019's Alms with Joe Queenan, which was staged as an Equity Showcase at TheaterLab in NYC. That SRO comeback ended T.J.’s 35-year hiatus from Off-Broadway. In those lost years, he produced, directed, and performed among casts of thousands in a mélange of corporate telenovelas and tragic, comic, melodramatic, and semi-absurd organizational performance art.
Earlier stage-works included Lazy Eye at Warren Robertson’s Studio Theatre, as well as writing, directing, and producing two unexpected break-even Off-Off Broadway runs of the Captive Audiences revues. He also appeared regionally as an actor in The Devil’s Disciple (Reverend Anthony Anderson), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Bernie), and The Dumbwaiter (Ben). In the early 1980s, T.J. studied with Alan Brody, Terry Schreiber, and Jill Andre.
In the Spring and Summer of 2020, T.J. produced live on Zoom for eleven performances the dark comedy, Grudges, also co-written with Queenan — to whom he owes his return to playwrighting. In November 2020, he directed Within The Context of No Context celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of that momentous New Yorker essay by the late George W.S. Trow. In December 2020, Knowledge Workings Theater premiered online his solo mostly fake Swedish screwball comedy Keeping Right. Returning to live in-person theater in November 2021, Genealogy by Queenan and Elliott premiered in Madison Wisconsin at Broom Street Theater. T.J. then directed their most recent collaboration, The Oracle, at Theater for the New City in May 2022, which garnered glowing reviews. (TBH, the reviews were gratifyingly good but we had to glue glitter to make them literally glow). Elliott's latest solo work, The Jester's Wife, will open in September at The Chain Theater in Manhattan.
Born in the Bronx, T.J. now lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife, Marjorie Phillips Elliott, with whom he co-founded Knowledge Workings Theater
KNOWLEDGE WORKINGS THEATER, The primary cause of our group is to make theater live, to as Marsha Norman once wrote, “provide a keyhole into some world that nobody has ever seen.” We want to produce what Hilton Als called “…a refraction of reality, containing feelings and thoughts that are put forth, first, in a primary text, which the actor interprets—an interpretation that the director supports or edits, in an attempt to help build, in a made-up world, an atmosphere of verisimilitude.”
And we think people should laugh while we do that heeding the aphorism attributed to George Bernard Shaw that “If you want to tell people the truth, you’d better make them laugh …”
In January 2018, Joe Queenan and T.J. Elliott started writing their attempts at truth telling via ‘problem comedies’. These plays explore difficult issues in a humanistic and entertaining fashion seeking through their collaboration with actors, director, other theater professionals, and the audience to provoke discussion and understanding of issues and ideas critical to our time such as race, religion, and ideological polarization.
In order to reach audiences as directly and immediately as possible, they founded and incorporated Knowledge Workings Theater. Our first Off-Broadway Equity showcase, Alms, enjoyed a sold-out run in May 2019 at TheaterLab in NYC. In that production and with all of our subsequent productions, our main aim is to not only stage our ‘problem comedies’ but also give members of our team — actors and our tech wizards — opportunities to show their work to a wider audience.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, like other NYC companies we had to stage our next two plays — Grudges and Keeping Right — via Zoom. Nonetheless, we managed to ‘make theater live‘ and successful even on that less-than-ideal venue. In November 2021, we returned to an actual stage through our co-production with Broom Street Theater of Madison Wisconsin of our play, Genealogy. Most recently, we staged in May 2022 a successful run of our play The Oracle at Theatre for the New City. Now our team is working on the production OOB of The Jester’s Wife (Autumn 2023)
Knowledge Workings exists and is funded by its founders to present plays, not garner profits. All members of the team must receive adequate compensation for their valuable work. Knowledge Workings is a member of the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York
Past Shows
Alms, TheaterLab May 2019
Grudges, [LiveStream] July 2020
The Context of No Context: 50th Anniversary Celebration of the George W.S. Trow Essay, [LiveStream] November 2020
Keeping Right, [LiveStream] December 2020
Genealogy, Broom Street Theater, Madison WI November 2021
The Oracle, THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY, May 2022
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Listings Information:
Who: Knowledge Workings Theater
What: THE JESTER’S WIFE
Where: 36th Street Theater (312 W 36th St. 4th floor, New York, NY 10018)
When: September 21 - October 8
How: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-jesters-wife-a-comedy-for-the-dark-ages-tickets-667226461307
The Jester's Wife Shakes up history for a funny cocktail from the dark ages.
