The Joke of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus leaves us with the thesis that Sisyphus denies the gods and that his world is a world without a master. When this very Sisyphus tells us the ancient myth about himself once again, a comic twist occurs creating a joke that tells us: instead of people being toys in the hands of the gods, the gods themselves become toys in the hands of man.

The play The Joke of Sisyphus – a fake myth about gods and men – casually peers into the cracks of the commonplaces of Greek mythology and, in the style of Camus, asks us whether Sisyphus is the greatest trickster among mortals or merely an insolent figure who refuses to die. Is the eternal rolling of a boulder up a hill a just punishment or merely an egoistic god venting his anger? Are Camus’s metaphors about Sisyphus as a worker or about Sisyphus as Don Juan still exclusive, or can we also view Sisyphus, now as a joke-hero, as a macho-capitalist or a kitsch-lover?

The one-sidedness of the ancient myth, which defends the gods-men, diminishes the goddesses-women, and makes mortals-people meaningless heroes, and the many layers of Camus’s text revealed to us that there is still some meaning hidden in Sisyphus’ work, and that, besides imagining Sisyphus happy, we can also imagine him being sad.

playwright and director:

Ivan Planinić

playwright and dramaturge:

Ivana Vuković

actor:

Karlo Mrkša

voices:

Jadranka Đokić, Domagoj Janković, Iva Kraljević, Nikša Marinović, Bernard Tomić, Paško Vukasović

producer:

Romana Brajša

sound designer:

Luka Gamulin

video projections by:

Miro Manojlović

music:

Karlo Mrkša and Filip Triplat

costume designer:

Petra Pavičić

associate for stage movement:

Andreja Jandrić

light designer:

Alen Marin

production assistants:

Hana Zrnčić Dim and Laura Pribanić

design:

Verlauf

photographer:

Karla Jurić

production:

Punctum Art Organization and KunstTeatar

premiere:

17 April, 2021

duration:

65 minutes