Writer Joel Marlin Explores the Themes of The Statesman
The Statesman is a new absurdist comedy by New York-based writer Joel Marlin, opening this September at Theatro Technis in London.
Set in a village where laughter is outlawed, the play follows a bitter official tasked with teaching people how to be funny when a boy’s forbidden giggle draws the attention of the Queen. Blending sharp political satire with dry humour and heart, The Statesman explores what happens when a community must confront the very thing it has spent generations suppressing.
In this interview, writer Joel Marlin reflects on the inspiration behind the play, the real-life influences that shaped its characters, and his earliest encounters with absurdist comedy.
Joel, what inspired you to write The Statesman? Was there a particular moment or idea that sparked it?
JM: I’d been holding on to this idea for a while. My first job out of college was as a schoolteacher in Washington, D.C., and it took me about a year to realize that the joke in all of it was that I was pretending to be a very serious man. Some of the kids really got it, and it actually worked remarkably well for managing a room full of eight-year-olds. But I found that the more I leaned into it, the funnier it was. That was the earliest I could see a humourless village and someone pushing against it.
Were any of the characters inspired by real people?
JM: Look, I’m at a point where I think that any writer who tells you they’re not writing about their family is lying to you.
It all gets in there. I’d always been told that my great-grandmother was a humourless woman. And when this person came from Poland to America, she went to work every day at a marshmallow cream factory. You’ll see that juxtaposition in the characters. I know it was of the time, but I have this cracked black-and-white photo of her giving the hardest deadpan. And when I was channelling the villagers, I looked to her.
Do you have any favourite absurdist works or playwrights that influenced this piece?
JM: It’s less about Ubu Plays and David Ives… The first absurdist comedy that I really had access to came from early Steve Martin albums and what I could catch on MTV from the American sketch group The State. It’s when I first saw that weird could be done correctly.
Which character in the play do you relate to the most?
JM: I would definitely need a professional to help me unpack that.
The Statesman
Venue: Theatro Technis, 26 Crowndale Rd, London NW1 1TT
Dates:10–13, 15–20, 22–27 (including Saturday matinees) September 2025
Ticket link: https://www.theatrotechnis.com/whatson/the-statesman
Elena Leo is the Arts & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
