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“One of the epoch-making scandals of Western theater. . . . Ubu’s appetite is for power. He represents the apocalyptic slob, the roaring, grasping 'man of the people' who chomps and slurps his way to the top.” —Newsweek
Alfred Jarry is regarded as one of the founders of modern avant-garde theatre— “Dada, Surrealism, Pataphysics, Theatre of Cruelty, the Absurd—all owe a debt to Jarry.” (Encore) This volume contains his three classic Ubu texts: Ubu Roi, Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné. Through the lucid translations of Connolly and Taylor, the reader comes to realize that the violent and loathsome Ubu is Jarry’s dark metaphor for man in the modern age. As Ubu himself said, “We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well.”
“A vicious, humorous attack on the barbarism of civilization. A mock Macbeth.” —Mel Gussow
“Full of grotesque humor, scatological allusions and mocking caricature, depicting the stupidity and rapaciousness of men and monarchs.” —The New York Times
“Jarry’s infant-cartoon vision of modern politics has turned out to be prophetic too. These days you can find Ubu at the head of any government, and the play’s attenuated string of executions and lootings calls up uncomfortably familiar images of everyone from Stalin to Idi Amin.” —The Village Voice
“One of the epock-making scandals of Western theater. . . . Ubu’s appetite is for power. He represents the apocalyptic slob, the roaring, grasping ‘man of the people” who chomps and slurps his way to the top.” —Newsweek
“The Ubu explosion sent shrapnel flying into the next century. Dada, Surrealism, Pataphysics, Theatre of Cruelty, the Absurd—all owe a debt to Jarry.” —Encore
One of the most important figures of the Parisian avant-garde, Alfred Jarry, was born in northern France, in 1873. Jarry is the author of Surrealist works, The Ubu Plays (1896), which include Ubu the King, Ubu Cuckolded, and Ubu Bound. He was also extremely influential to the Theatre of the Absurd school, which included such writers as Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, and Eugène Ionesco. Moving to Paris at the age of seventeen, Jarry’s writing was noticed and he became involved in a circle of intellectuals that included Guillaume Apollinaire, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Max Jacob. After a brief stint in the army, Jarry returned to Paris where he would write his first novel, entitled Days and Nights, about his experiences in the military. During this time he was also a contributor to the prestigious Symbolist magazine L’Ymagier. In 1896 Jarry’s play, Ubu the King, was first produced, which was extremely controversial at the time and immediately garnered attention to the young writer. Other works from Jarry’s minimal, albeit important, repertoire include the novels The Supermale and Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, pataphysician, and the play Caesar Antichrist. Jarry died at the age of thirty-four of tuberculosis in 1907.