Ubu Roi

Synopsis

In a fantastical Poland, a grotesque tyrant’s rise to power satirises the absurdity of unchecked greed and ambition.

Père Ubu, a gluttonous and cruel army officer, is convinced by his equally villainous wife Mère Ubu to assassinate the King of Poland and usurp the throne. After succeeding in his coup, Ubu embarks on a reign of comical terror, massacring nobles, raising taxes, and eating everything in sight.

Jarry’s anarchic play uses crude humour and puppet-like characters to skewer political corruption, bourgeois values, and human pettiness. Through its deliberately shocking language and behavior, Ubu Roi challenges theatrical conventions and prefigures the absurdist movement.

Ubu Roi raises provocative questions about the nature of authority and the thin line between tragedy and farce in politics. Can absurdism reveal truths that realism cannot? And in a world of Ubus, how can one maintain dignity and morality?