To play a joke in Engpsh, you can use the phrase "to pull a prank" or "to play a prank." You could also say "to play a joke" or "to play a practical joke." Here are some examples:

"We decided to pull a prank on our friend by pretending to be apens."
"He loves to play pranks on his coworkers, but they always seem to see through his tricks."
"She played a joke on her sister by putting a fake spider in her bed."
"We thought it would be funny to play a practical joke on our teacher, so we put fake vomit in his desk."