Cover of Ubu Roi

Ubu Roi

Championed by Dadaists and Surrealists as the first absurdist drama, the play features a main character that is cruel, gluttonous, and grotesque—the author's metaphor for modern man. This drama in five acts by Alfred Jarry is translated from the French by Barbara Wright, with two portraits of the author by L. Lantier and F. A. Cazals, and several drawings by Jarry and Pierre Bonnard, and 24 drawings by Franciszka Themerson, doodled on lithographic plates—all followed by "The Song of the Dismembering," and concluding with two essays on the theatre by the same author and the same translator.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 186 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Ubu Roi? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Ubu Roi. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Infernal Machine and Other Plays Shares theatre, plays, french
  2. The Balcony Shares plays, drama, theatre
  3. La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu Shares french, plays, theatre
  4. The Theater and Its Double Shares theatre, french, plays

“People who read Ubu Roi tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Bald Soprano and Other Plays
  2. Aunt Dan and Lemon
  3. Anthology of Black Humor
  4. Locus Solus

“If you want more of the same (literary fiction about theatre), start with these.”

  1. The Red Letter Plays
  2. The Old Neighborhood
  3. Kingdom of Earth
  4. Rabbit Hole

“If it was the plays that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Marriage of Figaro
  2. Don Juan
  3. Free onlineFree Amphitryon
  4. The Barber of Seville / The Marriage of Figaro / The Guilty Mother

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Craft-a-Doodle: 75 Creative Exercises from 18 Artists
  2. Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays
  3. The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre
  4. Complete Works, Vol. 1: The Birthday Party / The Room / The Dumb Waiter / A Slight Ache / A Night Out / The Black and White / The Examination