ENGLISH THEATRE OF 19th
AND 20th CENTURIES GROUP A
SURNAME: Giarratana NAME: Melania
RAUL
HERNANDEZ
GESTAS DE PAPA UBU
Directed by Paco Macià
Performed by Compania Ferroviaria Artes Escenicas; L’Altre Espai Theatre 11/24/2005,
Valencia, Spain.
Cast:
·
Manuel Hernandez : Papa Ubu
·
Gema Segura: Mama Ubu
·
Mario Esteban: Memnòn,
Monomonarca, Mandamàs,
Pueblo
·
Emma Lòpez /
Eloisa Azorìn: Palotìn,
Pueblo, Soldado, Alto cargo compartido, Juez, Nobles
·
Cristian Weidmann:
Palotìn, Conciencia, Pueblo
·
Letica Neco/ Ana Belén Linfante:
Bailarina Tatana, Arqueopterix
Stage design: Angel Haro
Clothing: Pascual Peris
Music: Pépe Ferrer
Illumination: José Maria Cerderina
Photography: Jordi Pla
Sound engineer: José Miguel Linares
Illumination engineer: José M. Cerderina
Executive producer: Helia Gavaldà
Production: Cìa Ferroviaria
Raùl Hernàndez has written this play based on Alfred Jarry’s
trilogy of plays: “King Ubu”, “Ubu Cuckolded”,
“Ubu Enchained” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubu_Roi).
From the beginning of the
performance, it was quite evident that Papa Ubu is an egoist, ambitious, nasty
mannered and slimy man. He is bald and wears trashy clothes as if he was a poor
man, but we know that he is a king. His wife, Mama Ubu, is a beautiful red
haired woman; she wears a red dress, which leaves her shoulders and often her
breasts bare. She is beautiful, coarse and rude many times, she moves on all
fours like a beast. She treats her husband as a puppet; she tries to make his
decisions for him and uses her sex- appeal to obtain what she wants. She has no
shame at betraying her husband with other men, because her unique desire is to
be powerful. She leads Ubu to kill Monomonarca who is the most powerful man in
the world; he wears a uniform, rules the military and speaks American English.
The figure of the soldiers is very emblematic, because they must follow even
the strangest orders that Monomonarca gives them, they have to stand his wickedness
and to be faithful to the power he represents. After their work-time everything
changes, they are not faithful anymore; they do not care about Monomonarca and
are free to get drunk or do anything they like. This represents the real
situation of the American Army: the American military power is based on the
work of soldiers that have probably no idea of what are the ideals of the
politicians that rule their country and give them orders.
One of the most interesting features of this play is the language: the
author invented a special language that makes it quite hard to be understood by
a non-native speaker.
The curtain was represented by the lights, even when they have to change
the scenery. Throughout the whole performance, the lights were low and focused
in turn on the character that had to be under the attention of the
audience.
The scenery was very simple; the most used object was a short
cylindrical pedestal, which represented many things such as the dining table,
the bathroom for Ubu and the weight of life problems for the people.
This play under all its aspects is very irreverent, cynic and sarcastic.
In my opinion it is a good medium to denounce the actual situation of the world
nowadays, even if it was written a long time ago. Throughout the performance,
the audience laughed many times, because the actors well acted in the funny
parts of the play; despite that, at the end, I could see that a lot of the
audience did not like the play.
Auto-evaluation: Notable
Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
© Melania Giarratana
megia@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València
Press