by Alfred Jarry (Author), Beverly Keith (Translator), G.
Legman (Translator)
Publisher : Dover
Publications; Illustrated edition (January 13, 2003)
Softcover, 80 pages
This is a play which, upon
its first performance, caused much outcry, riotous behavior, and walk-outs. Not
surprisingly, it ended up closing after that initial night. But the playwright
was respected enough, and amused his peers enough, so the infamous play was
kept around and referenced from time to time. It is simply dumb luck this
occurred. Ubu Roi simply came out at the right time and right place. Had it
been produced by any other person at any other time, it would be forgotten,
rather than a faded footnote.
The absurdist content and
scatological references, which caused all the trouble, are extremely tame by
today’s standards. I’m sure there are plenty of people who, upon reading this
play, wonder what the fuss was about. Remember however that this play came out
in 1896, long before the surrealists, dadists, theater of the absurd, or even
theater of the cruel were conceived. And in a very real sense Ubu Roi with its
ridiculously evil characters, yet effective parody of the world, anticipates
all of these movements.
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| Scene from Ubu Roi |
This version translates
the title as King Turd. However, the word "Ubu" is really simply a
babble word evolved from the French pronunciation of the name "Hebert”.
The language of the play is a unique mix of slang code-words, puns and near-gutter
vocabulary, set to strange speech patternsAs the play begins, Ubu's wife
convinces him to lead a revolution, and kills the King of Poland and most of
the royal family. The King's son, Bougrelas, and the Queen escape, but the
latter later dies. Ubu, now King, begins heavily taxing the people and killing
the nobles for their wealth. Ubu's henchman is thrown into prison; who then
escapes to Russia, where he has the Tsar declare war on Ubu.
As Ubu heads out to
confront the invading Russians, his wife tries to steal the money and treasures
in the palace. She is driven out by a popular revolt of Poles. She runs away to
her husband, Ubu, who has, in the meantime, been defeated by the Russians, been
abandoned by his followers, and been attacked by a bear. Ubu's wife pretends to
be the angel Gabriel, in order to try to scare Ubu into forgiving her for her
attempt to steal from him. They fight, and she is rescued by the entrance of
Bougrelas, who is after Ubu. He knocks down the attackers with the body of the
dead bear, after which he and his wife flee to France.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
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| Alfred Jarry |
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