Student: José Martínez Hernández e-mail: jomarhe5@alumni.uv.es

English Philology. First cicle, first course.

English Theatre XIX & XX Centuries Group B ( evenings ).

Play: Gestas de Papá Ubú

Author: Raúl Hernández Garrido. Director: Paco Maciá Produced by " compañía Ferroviaria de Artes Escéncias.

After the original " Ubu Rey " of Alfred Jarry, a text of finals of XIX century ( first time on stage on 1896 ).

This play, at that time ( and even now ), was quite harsh. It is a venomous criticism of the world and the villains that rule it. Power, politics, greed, war, revolution, etc... is all mixed up with a bit of nonsense in a strong and grotesque cocktail.

The main characters are:

Papá Ubú: The main character, egocentric, greedy and evil, and not he was a general, he is a coward, and is basically a pig, and even sometimes to show that, he walks, eats and groans like one. He does not care at all who he has to step on or kill in order to achieve what he wants. Even in his inclination for sex it is shown that he has no moral prejudices and that he is a "primitive", he does not obey any other rule that his impulses.

Mamá Ubú: The woman in red. She incites Papá Ubú to grab power from the Monomonarca. It is remarkable that sometimes she talks like a literate person ( when she she is with a pretender ) and that sometimes she talks like a whore when she is with Papá Ubú. Mysteries of the "Pataphisics". Maybe you need to talk like a pig to be understood by him.

Monomonarca: He is the english speaking ruler, and allegedly took power from Papá Ubú, who kills him.

There are many other characters , like the " Memnon ","Mandamás", " The People", " The dumb goose-stepping soldier"," the Nobles", " the Ballerina", etc... but for lack of space only a special remark will be made to " the Conscience of Papá Ubú ", that is represented by a " child " wearing only Pañales. Every time it appears, Papá Ubú tries to kill it and beats it and throws it away.

The play is a mixture of many things in which there is not a straightforward line of argument. In resume is a grotesque criticism of this shitty world and the powers that make it go round. The language used is rather harsh and the reference to the "Shit" are continious, refering to many things, like the dictators of the world, whose speeches Papá Ubú reads from the toilet roll while holding the sceptre ( the W.C. Broom ). This play has a lot of irony, like when the people enters where Papá Ubú is and he puts the lid on top of the shit container. Church does not escape criticism, nor the ONU, nor the brainless army, nor Revolution represented by a Lenin-like charcter holding the red flag.

Justice is under the spotlight too, with funny very contemporary references to our politics " Yo sólo veo documentales ".

Papá Ubú in a historical review, kills the nobles, treasons his own defenders, and uses the old turncoat trick, fooling the fools, while the other dictator appears on scene comfortably sitting on the system wheel that is propelled painfully by the hungry worker. Asian emerging powers and the fight for it in the world scenery are represented by a boxing ring, whose referee as you could expect is not impartial.

Papá Ubú gets Mamá Ubú pregnant, and she gives birth to same kind of bug that Papá Ubú kills.

There is a thought something like " if God is like man, and man is shit, then so is God ".

The language used, apart from being harsh, is unusual, for some characters, the duality of Mamá Ubú, Mamá Ubú's pretender and the other dictator, and mostly in the character of Papá Ubú, whose language is distorted. In some cases there is a cuestion of double entendre, mixing two words ( Circlo midway between circo and circulo, negrocios equals negocios negros,etc..) but the repetitive and unnecesary use of that language hampers from taking seriously the play. Part of the audience was speaking out loud his mind and not very smart remarks, rather more in the ambiance of a tabern than the one of a theatre.

As a criticism, it lacks the chance of being taken more seriously ( as serious as it really is ), and in his funny side it lacks being real fun.

The stalls of the Theatre " L´Altre Espai " were half empty; the settings were simple and so was the lighting, although not very much was needed. Dressing was good enough for the ocasion, being many times the change of dress that some characters had to undergo. The stage was permanently dirty.

A provocative play that maybe has a lot underneath, but a performance that is not at all my kind of entertainment.