Wednesday, November 07, 2007

THE UBU PLAYS -- Alfred Jarry

Grove Press, Inc. -- tpb
New York -- ©1969 -- 148pp
ISBN: 0-394-17485-2
Translated from the French by Cyril Connolly and Simon Watson Taylor

Three plays:
UBU REX
UBU CUCKOLDED
UBU ENCHAINED


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I'm doing a little Ubu research and decided to read through these plays again. I don't think I've done so since my college days.

Still off-beat an dunusual, I can better understand now, though, why this is considered to be a pre-cursor to the Theatre of the Aburd, rather than the beginning of the Absurdist movement. There are elements here that perhaps more strongly resemble the commediea del'arte theatre than the absurdist theatre.

I was struck, this time, by the high sense of political mockery here. I see this same type of theatre today.

Worth reading (or even re-reading) to those theatre lovers out there.

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