Ubu Roi (King Ubu)

Synopsis

Alfred Jarry's absurd and funny political satire Ubu Roi created a storm when it first appeared in Paris in 1896, striking a blow for artistic freedom with its outrageous burlesque. Set in fictional Poland, the utterly unlikable Ma and Pa Ubu violently take over the kingdom, become dictators and unleash a reign of mayhem on society. Ubu Roi uses scatological humour, farce and irreverence. Although the lewd parody loosely blends elements of 'Richard III' and 'Macbeth', Jarry's characters are blatantly stupid, cowardly, cruel, greedy, gluttonous and grotesque. Seen by some as an overgrown schoolboy joke that unfolds like a gory cartoon, Jarry's work actually inspired theatre of the absurd and Dario Fo as well as influencing the dada and surrealist movements in art.

Our Review:

Simon Tavener - 6 February 2013

Declan Donnellan is, for my money, the best director working in theatre today. That may be a bold statement – but every one of his pieces that I have been privileged to see has been a theatrical highlight of my year. Ubu Roi is a piece about which I knew very little and so I was more than intrigued to see what he and his experienced team could conjure.

The answer is 100 minutes of theatrical magic that poses more questions than it answers, challenges you to think what it is to be in the theatre and astounds you as to how simple story-telling devices can be deployed to such devastating effect.

Jarry’s text is littered with allusions to Shakespeare and it will come as no surprise that Donnellan exploits this to the full – and also uses it as the basis for a framing device that bridges the gap between the real world and the absurdist nightmare of Jarry’s characters. I could go into more detail but I feel this is a production that works best...

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