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 Alfred Jarry,
known primarily for his Ubu plays, began writing in 1888 at the
age of fifteen with two fellow pupils at the Rennes lycee.
Their project, a comic satire of their physics teacher, Monsieur
Hebert, was nothing more than a childish prank. Eventually, however,
this "piece alquemique" would become the world's first
absurdist drama.
The first and most famous of Alfred Jarry's Ubu plays is Ubu
Roi or Ubu Rex. This strange parody of Shakespeare's
Macbeth let loose upon the world the grotesque figure of Pa Ubu,
a foul old man set on conquering Poland by any means necessary--and
a personification of all that is base and stupid in mankind.
The play premiered at the Theatre de L'OEuvre on December 10,
1896 to mixed results from an angry and violent crowd. Some audience
members were outraged. Others were intrigued. But no one had
ever seen anything like this before. The next day, the debate
raged on in the papers and the cafes.
In 1898, Ubu Roi was performed again at the Theatre
de Pantins--this time with marionettes. Around the time of this
second performance, Jarry completed the second play in his Ubu
trilogy--Ubu Cuckolded. The first play, however, had generated
such a heated reaction that he failed to find a publisher. The
third play of the cycle, Ubu Enchained, was completed
in September of 1899. Neither Ubu Cuckolded nor Ubu
Enchained was ever performed during the playwright's lifetime.
Alfred Jarry's career was brought to an unfortunate and early
end when he died in 1907 at the age of 34, but his legacy lives
on in the works of such playwrights as Eugène
Ionesco and Samuel Beckett. Jarry
was the first prophet of the Theatre of the Absurd. Today, his
plays are considered an integral step in the evolution of the
modern theatre.
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