Theatre
Ubu Roi
Ubu roi
Alfred Jarry · 1896
Opening lines
Père Ubu
—Merdre.
Shittr.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
In Poland, that is to say nowhere, Mother Ubu urges her husband, Father Ubu, to kill King Wenceslas and take his place. Ubu hesitates, then murders the king, massacres the royal family and has himself crowned. He then has the nobles executed to seize their property and burdens the country with taxes. But the king's son, Bougrelas, has managed to escape.
Context
The character comes from a schoolboy farce: at Rennes, the pupils of the lycée mocked a physics teacher, Félix Hébert, and two of them, the Morin brothers, had made him a king of Poland in a puppet play. Jarry took up and developed this text. The play was published in 1896 and premiered on 10 December of the same year, at the Nouveau-Théâtre, by Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre; its first word, a distorted oath, caused a scandal.
Who it is for
Five very short acts, in an invented but immediate language; an hour's reading, and the comedy still lands.
Prizes and reception
The play gave the language the adjective ubuesque; Barbara Wright and then David Ball translated it into English.