The only place you're going to see Franz Ferdinand in Archduke is on the show poster, depicting a skull with a perfectly coiffed handlebar mustache. The play is more about the perpetrators of his assassination and what got them involved in the first place.

Of course, the Archduke has become a symbol for the entire World War I era, and his presence still looms large in the play. Berne noted that Archduke's second scene opens on a massive map of pre-WWI Europe, which looks much different than modern-day Europe, showing how seismically the Archduke's assassination shaped the world as we know it.

A few Serbian words and phrases are sprinkled throughout the script. Most are food names — like "punjene paprike", or Balkan stuffed peppers — spoken by the cook Slajdana. Using dishes' Serbian names shows Slajdana's passion for her food and her culture, actress Kristine Nielsen explained: "It would lose it in translation."

Adrien Rolet, who plays Trifko, added that the play nods to Serbian culture by way of its superstitions. "We really wanted to honor the place and the time [...] so part of that involves understanding which little elements of the story are good luck and bad luck," he said. "There's a superstitious element to the show that does come through a few symbols."

Nielsen noted that cats are one such recurring symbol. Whether they're good or bad luck, and what other symbols appear, is up to you to find out by seeing Archduke!

"Today, Apis would be on a website, he'd be in a chat room, or he might even have a podcast," Page said. "But in 1914, he brought [the boys] to his house." And how did he get them there? By offering them free food.

And he goes way beyond the mere sandwich the boys are looking for: Imagine a banquet table piled high with all kinds of meats, fishes, breads, and produce. All three boys are poor, hungry, and sick – and Apis knows it.

"When you're so desperate," said Jake Berne, who plays Gavrilo, "you can be easily manipulated."

Food is "used as a very funny device in the piece, but it's also very calculated," echoed Jason Sanchez, who plays Nedeljko. "It's a big motivator for the boys, it's a major tool for the captain, and for Sladjana, it's her love language."

When Roundabout approached Darko Tresnjak about directing Archduke, little did they know he was born in Zemun, the small town where the play is set! "It's a coincidence," he said with a laugh.

Zemun is in modern-day Serbia, but it was in Austria-Hungary until the end of WWI and was in socialist Yugoslavia during Tresnjak's childhood. "The events of the first World War, they changed my own family history completely," he continued. "I get to address my cultural heritage [through my work] for the first time in the United States."

Tresnjak even got set designer Alexander Dodge to sneak in a little homage to his family. "The first scene takes place in a warehouse, and I asked if it could be my grandfather's warehouse," the director said. Prop barrels display the logo of his grandfather's company.

You wouldn't expect a play about murder and war to be particularly funny, but Joseph noted that the real history is "absurd" and "farcical" in its own right.

"When you look at the chain of events that led to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, they're almost comical in the way that so many things went wrong, and yet they were still able to succeed," said the playwright.

The boys' fixation on food is also used both for emotional stakes and comic effect. Berne's declaration that Gavrilo falls into the assassination plot "on his way to get meaning and hopefully a sandwich" is designed to get a laugh.

"This idea that you will join a cause just because there was lunch provided rings pretty true!" Sanchez echoed. To a non-murderous extent, of course. But let's face it: Especially in NYC, who hasn't gone to an event just for the free food?

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