{"product_id":"ubu-1","title":"Ubu","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDrama Classics: the World's Great Plays at a Great little Price\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlfred Jarry's trilogy of plays about the comically grotesque character of Pa Ubu, satirising power, greed, and bourgeois pretension.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eUbu Plays\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eKing Ubu\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eCuckold Ubu\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eSlave Ubu\u003c\/em\u003e) caused scandal when they first appeared in Paris in the 1890s, with their surreal and frequently obscene energy, and their broad parodies of Shakespeare. They have since acquired cult status in European drama, and are seen by some as harbingers of modernism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eKing Ubu\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eUbu roi\u003c\/em\u003e, first performed in Paris in 1896), Pa Ubu is a cowardly hanger-on at the court of Good King Wenceslas of Baloney. Nagged by his fearsome wife Ma Ubu, he gathers a band of Barmpots and seizes the throne. But Ubu soon turns into a tyrant, debraining anyone who disagrees with him, murdering all the aristocrats and middle classes and extorting triple taxes from the peasants. When Ma Ubu runs off with a handsome soldier, his downfall suddenly seems inevitable...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCuckold Ubu \u003c\/em\u003e(\u003cem\u003eUbu cocu\u003c\/em\u003e) is the darkest and most surreal of the plays. Pa Ubu takes up residence in the home of Peardrop, a breeder of polyhedra, and he and his Barmpots tyrannise the neighbourhood, despite the efforts of Pa Ubu's Conscience and Peardrop to stop them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eSlave Ubu\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eUbu enchaȋné\u003c\/em\u003e) Pa Ubu decides that he has had enough of tyranny, and that the only way to be free is to become a slave, with unpredictable results.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlso included is the short sketch \u003cem\u003eUp Ubu\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eUbu sur la butte\u003c\/em\u003e), comprising scenes and sequences from \u003cem\u003eUbu roi\u003c\/em\u003e, with added songs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis volume of \u003cem\u003eThe Ubu Plays\u003c\/em\u003e, in the Nick Hern Books \u003cem\u003eDrama Classics\u003c\/em\u003e series, contains fresh and performable English translations by Kenneth McLeish, as well as an introduction to the plays and a chronology of Jarry's life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Nick Hern Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54260251722072,"sku":"9781854591890","price":8.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781854591890.jpg?v=1781075730","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/ubu-1","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}