Ubu For President

Description

Ridiculous! Raucus! Irreverant! Absurd! These were the first comments shouted from the crowd in response to Alfred Jarry’s opening line of Ubu Roi in 1896. Now it’s 2008, and the election juggernaut is rolling full steam ahead. What better time to celebrate a larger than life political tyrant? One of the greatest satires ever created, Ubu For President brings out the political activist in all of us. Shotgun Players invite you to jeer at the candidates, throw some rotten cabbages, and stand up for what you really believe in at John Hinkel Park this summer. Ubu For President opens Saturday, August 2 at 4PM and runs Saturday and Sunday through September 14 at John Hinkel Park in Berkeley.

Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi is a play about a fictional, larger-than-life tyrant who tramples over his enemies with gusto. It satirizes with great precision the democratic system we alternately revere and strive to improve in this country. In Shotgun Players’ original adaptation, Jarry’s hilarious and poignant characters are escorted into the modern political arena, and they continue the nefarious plotting and planning that originally made them famous.

Ubu, the title character, is so twisted, so perverse, so utterly self-interested and greedy and petty that it’s difficult to write him off. In the midst of his terrible grandeur exists a sympathetic ogre who can barely even manage to dress himself. The true genius of the original work isn't that it inspired absurdism and turned theatrical conventions upside-down forever—it's that Jarry makes you laugh at the worst parts of human nature. There is something tremendously important about laughing at evil; it’s a powerful way to allow us to overcome it.

The production will be directed by Shotgun Artistic Director Patrick Dooley with music arranged by Dave Malloy (Beowulf) and lyrics by Dave Garrett. Set Design by Alf Pollard, Costume Design by Valera Coble. Hanah Zahner-Isenberg will Stage Manage, and Fontana Butterfield will Assistant Direct.

The cast of Ubu For President features Shotgun company member Ryan O’Donnell (The Just, Ragnorak), as well as Dave Garrett (Private Wars), Carla Pantoja (Arabian Night), Gary Grossman, Sung Min Park, Cassi Maggio, Jordan Winer & Alf Pollard.

More Info

Link

http://www.shotgunplayers.org/ubu.htm

Call

510.841.6500 (Box Office)