2008 Woodie Awards
University of the Absurd
The Annual French Play: Ubu Roi
Menachem Wecker
Issue date: 12/27/04 Section: Arts & Culture
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If Elijah appeared to me in a dream and told me it would happen this way I would hardly believe him. You don't even really come and drink our Passover wine, I would tell him, why would I trust you that I would be sitting on the fifth floor of Belfer Hall watching a YU production of Alfred Jarry's "Ubu" on Monday, December 20th? And even if he somehow convinced me-I suppose prophets are in that line of business-when he told me it would have English subtitles, I would have never accepted such a convenient arrangement as remotely possible.
And sure enough, there I was, somehow. "I love this play and have wanted to perform it for ages," said Assistant Professor of French Dr. Holly Haahr, who directed the play, "I thought it was particularly pertinent this year because of the political climate. Ubu reminds me in some ways of a certain president."
Its fourth annual performance, the French department plays are intended to "give non-native speakers the opportunity to perform in French, and thus practice their oral use of the language," Haahr said. She said five of the nine actors were non-native speakers.
Jarry is the inventor of Pataphysics, "the science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments," according to unofficial biographer, Roger Shattuck's "Selected Works of Alfred Jarry." Shattuck's "The Banquet Years" explores Jarry, Apollinaire, Satie and Henri Rousseau. Haahr says that though Jarry is well-known in France, "He's certainly not a 'great classic,' but certainly more familiar to people [in France] than he is here." I disagree. Arguably Jarry is almost single-handedly responsible for Surrealism, Dada and a wide variety of Symbolist art. The Theater of the Absurd writers-Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Pinter and the others-owe much to him. He is my favorite writer.
Like virtually no other literary figure, Jarry adopted the role of his character, King Ubu, in his real life. He referred to himself in the first person plural, he fished in the Seine for his meals and he dressed in a biker's uniform (pants tucked into socks, and oversized hat). He would write "How to Build a Time Machine" and "The Passion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race," and he started his own Church (and published his own newsletter). Jarry illustrated his Ubu tales, and showed some skill at cartoons. He died at thirty-four from absinthe, amongst other things.
And sure enough, there I was, somehow. "I love this play and have wanted to perform it for ages," said Assistant Professor of French Dr. Holly Haahr, who directed the play, "I thought it was particularly pertinent this year because of the political climate. Ubu reminds me in some ways of a certain president."
Its fourth annual performance, the French department plays are intended to "give non-native speakers the opportunity to perform in French, and thus practice their oral use of the language," Haahr said. She said five of the nine actors were non-native speakers.
Jarry is the inventor of Pataphysics, "the science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments," according to unofficial biographer, Roger Shattuck's "Selected Works of Alfred Jarry." Shattuck's "The Banquet Years" explores Jarry, Apollinaire, Satie and Henri Rousseau. Haahr says that though Jarry is well-known in France, "He's certainly not a 'great classic,' but certainly more familiar to people [in France] than he is here." I disagree. Arguably Jarry is almost single-handedly responsible for Surrealism, Dada and a wide variety of Symbolist art. The Theater of the Absurd writers-Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Pinter and the others-owe much to him. He is my favorite writer.
Like virtually no other literary figure, Jarry adopted the role of his character, King Ubu, in his real life. He referred to himself in the first person plural, he fished in the Seine for his meals and he dressed in a biker's uniform (pants tucked into socks, and oversized hat). He would write "How to Build a Time Machine" and "The Passion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race," and he started his own Church (and published his own newsletter). Jarry illustrated his Ubu tales, and showed some skill at cartoons. He died at thirty-four from absinthe, amongst other things.