Merdre!
October 26, 2013 6:26 PM Subscribe
Alfred Jarry, 19th century playwright and writer, is often credited with the start of the Theater of the Absurd with his infamous play, Ubu Roi. In 1965, Jean-Christopher Averty produced a French made-for-TV movie based on the play, which is an odd mix of the cartoonish and the Bayeux Tapestry, with live actors - Ubu Roi (SLYT, 95 min, NSFW language, French, press CC button for English subtitles).
I once saw a theater version of Ubuntu Roi performed simulataniously by live action and puppets. It was memorable.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:39 PM on October 26, 2013
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:39 PM on October 26, 2013
Also available on Ubuweb, who I'm sure would be happy for you to download it. (Plus I think the Ubuweb webpage is nicer.)
posted by benito.strauss at 6:57 PM on October 26, 2013
posted by benito.strauss at 6:57 PM on October 26, 2013
Ubu Roi! I had almost forgotten about it. I came across the play as an art student and loved it so much that I animated the first act in Flash. I made this about 10 years ago when I was first learning Flash, and I am not really an animator, so it's a bit stilted. But you might get a kick out of it.
posted by oulipian at 7:10 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by oulipian at 7:10 PM on October 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
benito.strauss, that's a good link and has the english subtitles available for download, which i didn't get to download through clip converter with youtube - thanks
posted by pyramid termite at 7:14 PM on October 26, 2013
posted by pyramid termite at 7:14 PM on October 26, 2013
Ubuntu Roi
I guess they've decided to give Unity a more accurate name.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 7:17 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
I guess they've decided to give Unity a more accurate name.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 7:17 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
I mainly know of this from the Walter Jon Williams novel Angel Station.
posted by Artw at 7:30 PM on October 26, 2013
posted by Artw at 7:30 PM on October 26, 2013
> they've decided to give Unity a more accurate name.
What, the de-braining machine?
posted by scruss at 7:38 PM on October 26, 2013
What, the de-braining machine?
posted by scruss at 7:38 PM on October 26, 2013
Glad to provide it, pyramid termite. And don't feel bad about not finding it — Ubuweb does its best to stay out of the search engines.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:13 PM on October 26, 2013
posted by benito.strauss at 8:13 PM on October 26, 2013
Oh dear god. Years ago I saw the play performed at my university. Very disturbing. Scatological humor isn't my thing. But the main actors were pretty good, whatever that's worth.
posted by quiet earth at 9:42 PM on October 26, 2013
posted by quiet earth at 9:42 PM on October 26, 2013
I was shocked! ... to hear the final l pronounced in cul, something I've never heard before. Is that a traditional stage thing, or an Ubu thing?
posted by languagehat at 8:17 AM on October 27, 2013
posted by languagehat at 8:17 AM on October 27, 2013
BTW, Ubuweb's Twitter feed will give you a nice trickle of gems like this. (I realized that was how I managed to stumble across this earlier.)
posted by benito.strauss at 9:42 AM on October 27, 2013
posted by benito.strauss at 9:42 AM on October 27, 2013
I was shocked! ... to hear the final l pronounced in cul, something I've never heard before. Is that a traditional stage thing, or an Ubu thing?
No, the L is always silent. Most likely Averty chose to make it non-silent to add it to the list of malformed, mispronounced and imaginary words that Jarry used in the play, like phynances, merdre and palotin. Jarry borrowed many of these words from high school slang, which typically makes fun of the oddities of the French language (Latin and Greek roots, bizarre spelling). Saying the final L in cul fits into this tradition since it's both slightly pedantic (or ignorant) and of course cruder than without the L (rhymes with encule). Also, at the end of the play, the actor also mispronounces "Pologne" for comedic purpose.
posted by elgilito at 11:00 AM on October 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
No, the L is always silent. Most likely Averty chose to make it non-silent to add it to the list of malformed, mispronounced and imaginary words that Jarry used in the play, like phynances, merdre and palotin. Jarry borrowed many of these words from high school slang, which typically makes fun of the oddities of the French language (Latin and Greek roots, bizarre spelling). Saying the final L in cul fits into this tradition since it's both slightly pedantic (or ignorant) and of course cruder than without the L (rhymes with encule). Also, at the end of the play, the actor also mispronounces "Pologne" for comedic purpose.
posted by elgilito at 11:00 AM on October 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
This play has arguably had more interesting adaptations/productions than any piece of theatre in history. I've read of productions trying to re-create the shock of that first scene in our now difficult-to-shock culture through things such as having the king masturbate into a champagne flute which is then drunk by the queen to dropping a pile of horse manure from the fly space into the orchestra pit where it remained for the entirety of the performance.
In any case, I'm looking forward to watching this one. I love Jarry.
posted by Lutoslawski at 11:11 AM on October 28, 2013
In any case, I'm looking forward to watching this one. I love Jarry.
posted by Lutoslawski at 11:11 AM on October 28, 2013
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Oh man.
posted by Rory Marinich at 6:26 PM on October 26, 2013