The Ubu Plays

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.”