SHORT KING

Fringe 2026

SHORT KING

A tiny king tries to ban every shadow in his kingdom after losing his best friend. It doesn't go well. SHORT KING is a 45-minute play (emphasis on "play") about grief, and the shadows we learn to keep — told through shadow puppetry, humanette puppets, and original songs. After Short King's best friend dies, he comes up with a plan: lights. A lot of lights. Enough lights to ban every shadow in his kingdom. The plan goes about as well as you'd expect. As darkness keeps creeping in, Short King sets off on a journey to confront what he's been running from — and finds something he never expected on the other side.

The show is built for kids ages 5 and up and the grown-ups who came with them. It's funny, it's tender, and it doesn't look away from the hard part. It's grounded in contemporary research on how children grieve — including the idea of continuing bonds, which holds that we don't get over the people (and dogs) we lose; we carry them with us, and they shape who we become.

From the creator of WINNING:Winning — Artists' Pick, Edmonton Fringe 2024 and Cincy Fringe 2025.

Plain Language Description

SHORT KING is a 45-minute play for kids and grown-ups. It is about a small king whose best friend, a dog, dies. The king is very sad. He decides to get rid of every shadow in his kingdom because shadows make him think of being sad. He tries to light up everything with lamps. His plan does not work. The shadows keep growing.

SHORT KING leaves his castle to find out where the shadows are coming from. On his journey, he gets to play and learns about his feelings. At the end, he understands that being sad is part of loving someone. He also learns that the friends we lose are still with us in important ways.