Ubu Roi

Alternative title: King Ubu
Synopsis: French television version of the play by Alfred Jarry. Pere Ubu is an oafish, barely ranking civil servant persuaded by his shrewish wife to kill the King of Poland and usurp the throne. Ubu is unfit to rule anything, so his eventual ascension is a farce. He becomes a violent and incompetent dictator who kills his subjects, destroys the economy, and makes war arbitrarily. The play offers parodic adaptations of situations and plot-lines from Shakespearean drama, including Macbeth, Hamlet and Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ubu murders the king who has helped him on the urging of his wife, usurps the throne and is in turn defeated and killed by the dead man’s sons; Jarry adapts the ghost of the dead king and Fortinbras’ revolt from Hamlet; Buckingham’s refusal of reward for assisting a usurpation from Richard III; and The Winter’s Tale’s bear.
Language: French (Standard)
Country: France
Medium: Video
Availability: No archive copy known (7/2008).
Subjects: Drama
Keywords: Jarry, Alfred