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An apocalyptic sequence of distorted Christian images gives way to Père Ubu, who appears as the new Messiah and Antichrist. The work's symbolic, book-oriented form resists conventional staging, though a student production was mounted in Melbourne in 1978.
Vampire women Vampi and Bampi travel the world and attempt to stop a destructive King-President, portrayed as a grotesque ruler in an oval office. Gorgonzilla, a sea monster created by a nuclear accident, opposes the ruler but has an ambiguous role. The King-President’s adjutants Mickey and Tuckey are patterned after powerful technology executives. The work satirizes the danger that the ruler could destroy the world and the efforts to prevent it.
At his wife's urging, the ambitious and cowardly Captain Ubu murders King Wenzel and takes the Polish throne. He enriches himself through the treasury, kills or imprisons rivals, and imposes heavy taxes; Prince Bougrelas returns with Russian support and leads a revolt, and after defeat Ubu, his wife, and their remaining followers flee the country.
Egged on by his wife, Père Ubu leads a revolt, murders Poland's king and seizes power. He taxes and kills nobles, then faces a Russian invasion and popular revolt before fleeing France with his wife.
Set after apartheid’s end, Jane Taylor’s reworking of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu legend follows Pa Ubu, a governmental death-squad agent who fears exposure when South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission offers amnesty for truthful testimony. Puppetry, live actors, animation and documentary witness accounts place his burlesque world against the survivors’ testimony.
An apocalyptic sequence of distorted Christian images gives way to Père Ubu, who appears as the new Messiah and Antichrist. The work's symbolic, book-oriented form resists conventional staging, though a student production was mounted in Melbourne in 1978.
Vampire women Vampi and Bampi travel the world and attempt to stop a destructive King-President, portrayed as a grotesque ruler in an oval office. Gorgonzilla, a sea monster created by a nuclear accident, opposes the ruler but has an ambiguous role. The King-President’s adjutants Mickey and Tuckey are patterned after powerful technology executives. The work satirizes the danger that the ruler could destroy the world and the efforts to prevent it.
At his wife's urging, the ambitious and cowardly Captain Ubu murders King Wenzel and takes the Polish throne. He enriches himself through the treasury, kills or imprisons rivals, and imposes heavy taxes; Prince Bougrelas returns with Russian support and leads a revolt, and after defeat Ubu, his wife, and their remaining followers flee the country.
Egged on by his wife, Père Ubu leads a revolt, murders Poland's king and seizes power. He taxes and kills nobles, then faces a Russian invasion and popular revolt before fleeing France with his wife.
Set after apartheid’s end, Jane Taylor’s reworking of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu legend follows Pa Ubu, a governmental death-squad agent who fears exposure when South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission offers amnesty for truthful testimony. Puppetry, live actors, animation and documentary witness accounts place his burlesque world against the survivors’ testimony.