The Ubu Plays

Alfred Jarry

Grove Press, 1969 - Drama - 148 pages

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.”

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - sholt2001 - LibraryThing

These plays should be read by anyone interested in absurdism, French art or European theatre. They tell of the rise and fall of a pointlessly cruel monarch and the aftermath of his destruction.

Review: The Ubu Plays: Ubu Rex / Ubu Cuckolded / Ubu Enchained

User Review  - Matt - Goodreads

Weird as it comes. Get together with some pals and do group readings. Great fun. Even to this day, there's nothing quite as balmy as Pere Ubu.

About the author

Alfred Jarry, eccentric dramatist, poet, and humorist, was born in Laval, France, in 1873. He was the co-founder, with Remy de Gourmont in 1894, of the magazine L'ymagier, which literally translated is "the maker of prints." This magazine, in existence only two years, presented texts and art images from a number of literary avant-garde artists of the late 19th century. Jarry is perhaps best known for the satirical and farcical play Ubu Roi (King Ubu), the first in a series of Ubu plays, published in 1896. Jarry died in 1907 in Paris.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Ubu Plays; (Evergreen original.); Methuen's theatre classics
• Author: Alfred Jarry
• Edition: reprint, reissue
• Publisher: Grove Press, 1969
• ISBN: 0802150101, 9780802150103
• Length: 148 pages
• Subjects: Drama / General