“If you don’t cry, they won’t feed you / If you don’t steal, you’re stupid!”
Surprisingly, this line wasn’t written by Alfred Jarry, nor is it spoken by Papa Ubu – it’s sung by Julio Sosa in his song Cambalache. And yet, it might as well have been said by Papa Ubu. Or by anyone who suddenly and undeservedly comes into power.

Ubu Roi is a guidebook on how to seize power by force and destroy a country, a society – even at the cost of human lives and disastrous economic decisions. What began as a schoolboy prank evolved into a surreal, yet frighteningly accurate “painting” of power in any era – and of how a national leader can bend public good and the will of the people to fit their own desires. Papa Ubu imposes his will by trampling over everything and everyone, attaining a power upon which human lives and destinies depend.

This seemingly impossible, yet painfully real and almost unimaginable character was inspired by Jarry’s physics teacher, Hébert, who, according to Jarry, “embodied all the grotesqueness of the world.” Jarry’s parodic and ironic approach gives rise to the grotesque, and that’s what makes Ubu an emblematic figure in this text, originally written as a puppet show for the fair. Absurd situations blend with seemingly senseless lines and surreal events.

In this way, Ubu Roi (original title: Ubu Roi or the Poles) became a forerunner of the Theatre of the Absurd in the 19th century.

Our performance is an attempt to process the social and political madness of the world. An attempt to feel – through laughter or even shock and horror, but above all through recognition – that the world will never become a better place simply through the vote of the majority... For the world has never been, and will never be, entirely perfect – but we can still truly enjoy ourselves in it if we’re able to laugh at it, and at ourselves.

We wish you an enjoyable performance!

Cast: