Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry

Ubu Roi has always been subjected to exalted claims or exaggerated scorn. When Jarry's play was first staged in Paris in 1896, this strange parody of Macbeth assaulted virtually every sacred tenet of theater and practically caused a riot -- precisely the reaction that Jarry sought. This obscene play let loose upon the world Jarry's grotesque figure of Ubu, a personification of all that is base and stupid in mankind.

Alfred Jarry, author of the Ubu plays, inventor of "Pataphysics", and "eccentric to the point of mania and lucid to the point of hallucination," became the focal point of both outrage and awe. Jarry became the adopted father of the symbolists, the surrealists, and the family tree has been drawn to the futurist and dada movements and on to the absurdists.

Performances of Ubu Roi are July 16-August 1, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 7:00 at Actors Workshop, 40 Boylston Street, Boston.