Ubu Roi

Papa Turd is demonstrably greedy and selfish throughout the play; even at its end, he’s preparing to go to Paris and become their “Master of Phynance.” Track Papa Turd throughout the play. How does he remain static as a character? Are there ways in which his character evolves?  

Ubu Roi is an excessive and shocking play. How does this compare with naturalistic theatre in terms of conveying the play’s themes? In what ways does Jarry use violence and vulgarity to help him convey his messages about society? 

Papa Turd is described by Jarry as personifying “all the ugliness in the world” (1), and the character is seen as a reflection of the baser aspects of human thoughts and desires. What conclusions can you draw about human nature based on how it’s depicted and satirized in Ubu Roi? 

Jarry said in his Preface that audiences “are free to see in M. Ubu however many allusions [they] care to” (1), and the play makes room in Papa Turd’s “in the trap” speech to incorporate modern societal references. Pick a time period or setting in the years since Jarry’s play premiered and imagine a production that draws a connection between that culture and Ubu Roi’s themes. What would an audience seeing the play learn about their own society? 

Jarry tells the audience in his Preface to “accept” surreal settings like “doors that open out on plains covered with snow falling from a clear sky” (2-3).Ubu Roi is viewed as a precursor to the Surrealist movement. How else can Jarry’s play be seen as surreal? 

Ubu Roi is often described as a parody of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Compare and contrast various craft elements of the two plays. 

Ubu Roi has a strong connection to puppetry: Jarry describes the play as having been written “for actors pretending to be puppets” (2), and Papa Turd is also described as a “puppet” by both Jarry and Mama Turd (45). How are the characters of Ubu Roi puppet-like? What does knowing that the actors are “pretending to be puppets” add to the characters as they’re written on the page? 

Jarry wrote Ubu Roi as a scathing satire of the bourgeoisie, or middle-class society, of his time. Analyze this bourgeois society through the image Jarry paints in the play—what can you assume about them from the larger societal messages Jarry lays out in the text?