The Philosopher’s Joke

What would you change about your life if you could go back in time? That is
the question asked in The Philosopher’s Joke, a whimsical play based on the short story by Jerome K. Jerome. Preparing to propose to his beloved, the young Narrator asks his married clergyman for advice and stumbles upon a bizarre secret: his reverend, a local poet, an entrepreneur and their wives all profess to have experienced a shared dream. In it, they are in Germany where their bizarre host, possibly the ghost of philosopher Emmanuel Kant, gets the couples to admit that they are mismatched and offers them the opportunity to go back in time, knowing how their lives will turn out, to see if having this knowledge early on would be helpful. The couples take the philosopher’s offer only to discover they would make the same decisions they made then – even with the knowledge they have now. They return to the present unwilling to speak of the incident, yet each possessing a great desire to be somehow relieved of what they’ve learned about themselves. Now that they know, what will they do?

Plays in repertory with The Barksdale Confession.

Schedule:
Wednesday, Feb 18 at 8pm
Thursday, Feb 19 at 8pm
Friday, Feb 20 at 7pm
Saturday, Feb 21 at 9pm
Wednesday, Feb 25 at 8pm
Friday, Feb 27 at 9pm
Saturday, Feb 28 at 7pm
Monday, March 1 at 8pm
Wednesday, March 3 at 8pm (Talk Back)
Friday, March 5 at 7pm
Saturday, March 6 at 9pm
Wednesday, March 10 at 8pm
Thursday, March 11 at 8pm
Friday, March 12 at 8pm
Saturday, March 13 at 8pm