By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Morgan Green
A co-production with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
November 19 – December 8, 2024
From the boundary pushing, Obie Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (An Octoroon), this electrifying comedy is a meditation on impermanence, nostalgia, and isolation. Anticipating their 20-year high school reunion, fueled by adult jungle juice and pot, four former classmates reminisce at a porch pre-game party that hangs on a porous border with the otherworldly. Directed by Co-Artistic Director Morgan Green with wit and heart (filmed version of Fat Ham, School Pictures, Eternal Life Part 1), The Comeuppance features the Wilma’s HotHouse in collaboration with Woolly Mammoth’s Company of Artists.
By Inua Ellams
Directed by Lindsay Smiling
February 11 – March 2, 2025
Nigerian-born British poet and playwright Inua Ellams blends Yoruba and Greek mythologies into an incredible story of a demigod-turned-NBA superstar in The Half-God of Rainfall. The epic poem follows a half-Nigerian mortal, half-Greek God named Demi, who possesses extraordinary powers yet is burdened by the expectations of his lineage. Demi’s powers grow as he leaves his West Nigerian village for the bright lights of the NBA, where he emerges as an all-world talent driven by passion, power, and destiny. Under the directorial vision of Wilma Co-Artistic Director Lindsay Smiling, (recently seen on stage in Fat Ham and My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion) The Half-God of Rainfall features the HotHouse Acting Company and explores the intersection of patriarchy, imperialism, and American basketball.
By Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Blanka Zizka
April 15 – May 4, 2025
Three boys – Gavrilo Princip, Trifko Grabež, and Nedeljko Čabrinović – are recruited by a mysterious organization with promises of glory, purpose, and a sandwich. Their depraved Captain sends the boys on a mission he claims will restore order and justice to their struggling nation and avenge the unfairness of their terminal illness. Their assignment? Assassinate the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie. Beloved playwright Rajiv Joseph (Describe the Night) returns to the Wilma with a play that asks, what happens when a person feels like they have nothing left to lose? What methods are acceptable in the fight against oppression? Led by the Wilma’s visionary Founding Artistic Director Blanka Zizka (Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Kill Move Paradise), and featuring the HotHouse Acting Company, Archduke offers audiences a humanized glimpse into the catalyst of WWI.
By Jon Fosse
Translated by Sarah Cameron Sunde
Directed by Yury Urnov
June 10 – 29, 2025
Experience the haunting beauty of Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse’s A Summer Day, directed by inventive Co-Artistic Director Yury Urnov (Mr. Burns, Minor Character, 12th Night) in a production that delves into the depths of human connection, memory, and existential longing. Is there one day in your past you keep replaying again and again? When do we start spending more time in the past than in the present? Through Fosse’s poetic language and Urnov’s innovative direction and immersive visual design, audiences are transported into an epic and intimate world where past and present intertwine, inviting reflection on the fleeting nature of time and the eternal search for meaning. Often referred to as a modern-day Ibsen, Fosse won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023 – one of the few playwrights to ever receive that honor – and is rarely produced in the United States.
BONUS! Tickets to POOR JUDGE are only available with the purchase of your 2024-25 Wilma Season Subscription.
POOR JUDGE – A Pig Iron Production
Presented by FringeArts in Association with the Wilma Theater as part of the 2024 Fringe Festival
Created by Pig Iron
From an original idea by Dito van Reigersberg
Directed by Eva Steinmetz
Music direction by Alex Bechtel
September 11 – 22, 2024
An original work of dance-theater cabaret born from the catalog of alt-rock iconoclast Aimee Mann. Dreamed up by Philadelphia’s beloved Dito van Reigersberg, this live music mixtape is part spy story, part woeful tale of lost loves, and part Hollywood audition—all performed by a local supergroup of actor-musicians.
