Gestas de Papá Ubú

Gestas de Papá Ubú, Raúl Hernández Garrido

Director: Paco Macià.

Compañía Ferroviaria de Artes Escénicas.

“L’Altre Espai”, 17-11-05.

Characters

·                   Papá Ubú, played by Manuel Hernández. Ubú is a man who tries to dominate the world following instructions of his wife. Ubú turns into tyrant, he kills, he wants the world, and he acts like a dictator. At the beginning his appearance is like a poor man who cannot speak well, in the pass of the play he dress like a king, however his language follows being very bad.

·                   Mamá Ubú: played by Gema Segura. Mamá Ubú married Papá Ubú. She has an affair with Memnón and she wants to get rid of her husband and she order him to kill the “Monomonarca”, and then Monomonarca’s soldiers would kill him and she could live whit her lover. But her ideas do not become like she wanted.

·                   Memnón: played by Mario Esteban. Memnón is Mamá Ubú’s lover and he order her to kill Ubú but she does not want and looks for another solution.

Other characters with less relevance are “Monomonarca”, Ubú’s friend who is killed by Ubú. “Mandamás”, “The town”, Palotín, Soldier, Judge, Conscience, Dancer and Arqueopterix. They are played by Mario Esteban, Emma López, Eloisa Azorín, Cristian Weidmann, Leticia Ñeco and Ana Belén Lifante.

The plot of “Gestas de Papá Ubú” is very mixed. The play begins when Mamá Ubú pretends to kill her husband ordering him to kill the “Monomonarca” and then his soldiers would kill Ubú, but Ubú kills Monomonarca and nobody kills him. Now Ubú pretends dominate all the world. In his travel to dominate other countries he encounters with Mandamás and they go together to China for dominate it. In the pass of the play, Ubú imitates dictators like Hitler, Franco, Mussolini. The play maybe pretends to explain us the dictatorships in the world, and Ubú is represented like a reincarnation of these dictators.

The dress used in this play is very associated with the characters. Firstly, Ubú is dressed like a poor man with rap clothes and after with a cloak. Mamá Ubú is dressed with a red dress I think she seems to be a prostitute, for the colour, and because this dress remembers me a cabaret dancer. Monomonarca is dressed like a rich man, but not like a king, he seems a sailor captain. Finally, Memnón is dressed most modern than the others, he would be what in our days is said “metrosexual”.

The atrezzo used in this play is very simple. The only thing appears in the stage to give sensation of a place is a figure of a red circle. This figure is a toilet, a door to expulse the worst men (decided by Ubú), a bath…

In my personal opinion, this play represents a dictatorship, the tyranny and the capitalism in the world. The play pretends to make fun of these issues and to give knowledge of them.