Fall Play Preview: Ubu Roi

When Alfred Jarry wrote Ubu Roi (King Ubu) at the end of the 19th century, he was still in high school. It was later performed in a legitimate theatre and caused quite a riot. The Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, who was in the audience, stood up at the end and said “apres moi, le deluge,” quoting Louis XIV on the end of the French monarchy. Yeats and others were outraged by the language, the burlesque and the mockery of Shakespeare, in particular of Macbeth. Jarry founded a movement called Pataphysics which became the basis for other theatre movements, including The Theatre of the Ridiculous.

In this form of theatre, nothing is out of bounds. The idea is to shock and to offend and, most of all, to make you laugh. As David Peck, the director and head of the performing arts department, says, “The play is honestly sophomoric with all that that implies: mockery, parody, silly humor and burlesque.” David, who finds Ubu Roi a welcome change of pace after his intensely dramatic production of Romeo and Juliet last spring, has chosen to go with the intent of the play and the text, but has no agenda as regards the action. The action is invented as the rehearsals proceed. The student’s turn in ideas – the overall intention is to come up with work that reflects the outrageous bad taste of the play. The group adopts some of the ideas and rejects other. “The play should be great fun,” says David, and, further, “No thinking allowed during the play, just laugh and go with the absurd.”

Ubu Roi stars Lee Seymour ’05 and Rowan Swanson ’04 as Ubu and his wife. Ubu Roi is a play in two acts with one intermission (about 1 hour 45 minutes). The performance will take place on the thrust stage with the orchestra pit down. The music, which is eclectic and programmatic, will be performed by a lone musician who will also create the sound effects on his keyboard. The music underscores the humor and sometimes provides its own commentary on the action. Props include: a toilet plunger, a gigantic wooden sword, jump ropes, leftover pizza boxes, and an AAA map of Boston.

The play runs November 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m. and November 8 at 7:00 p.m.in the Ruth King Theatre.

Come and have fun. Remember, no thinking, only laughing.