Ubu

The Ubu Plays: King Ubu, Cuckold Ubu & Slave Ubu

Alfred Jarry, Kenneth McLeish

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781854591890
• eBook ISBN: 9781780012681
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Drama Classics: the World's Great Plays at a Great little Price

Alfred Jarry's trilogy of plays about the comically grotesque character of Pa Ubu, satirising power, greed, and bourgeois pretension.

The Ubu Plays ( King Ubu, Cuckold Ubu and Slave Ubu ) 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.

In King Ubu ( Ubu roi, 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...

Cuckold Ubu ( Ubu cocu ) 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.

In Slave Ubu ( Ubu encha?né ) 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.

Also included is the short sketch Up Ubu ( Ubu sur la butte ), comprising scenes and sequences from Ubu roi, with added songs.

This volume of The Ubu Plays, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics 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.

KING UBU

Characters

PA UBU

MA UBU

DOGPILE

GOOD KING WENCESLAS

QUEEN ROSAMOND

PRINCE WILLY

PRINCE SILLY

PRINCE BILLIKINS

BIG BAD BERNIE

WALLOP

McCLUB

FAST FREDDIE

NORBERT NURDLE

TSAR ALEXIS OF ALL THE RUSSKIES

NICK NACKERLEY

GENERAL CUSTARD

MAJOR F. FORT

BEAR

Barmpots, bankers, cashhounds, chaps, citizens, clerks, councillors, flunkeys, ghosts, guards, judges, messengers, nobs, partisans, seafarers, soldiers, turnkeys.

Act One

1 PA UBU, MA UBU.

PA UBU. Shikt.

MA UBU. Pa Ubu, language.

PA UBU. Watch it, Ma Ubu. I’ll bash your head in.

MA UBU. Not my head, Pa Ubu. Someone else’s.

PA UBU. Stagger me sideways, what d’you mean?

MA UBU. Come on, Pa Ubu. You like what you are?

PA UBU. Stagger me sideways, girl, of course I like it. Shikt, who wouldn’t? Captain of the Guard, Eye and Ear of Good King Wenceslas, Past President of the Battalions of Baloney, Thane of Four-door. What more d’you want?

MA UBU. You’re joking. Thane of Four-door, you used to be. Now who follows you? Fifty sausage-knotters in procession. Forget Four-door. Get your loaf measured for the crown of Baloney.

PA UBU. Ma Ubu, what are you on about?

MA UBU. As if you didn’t know.

PA UBU. Stagger me sideways. Good King Wenceslas is still alive, for starters. And even if he wasn’t, he’s got a million kids.

MA UBU. So, do in the lot of them. Take over.

PA UBU. Watch it, Ma Ubu, or it’s jug for you.

MA UBU. Idiot! If I’m in jug, who’ll patch your pants?

PA UBU. So let ’em see my bum.

MA UBU. No: plant it on a throne. Just think of it. A pile of cash, big as you like. Bangers for breakfast. A golden coach.

PA UBU. If I was king, I’d have a big hat. Like that one I had in Four-door, till those bastards nicked it.

MA UBU. And a brolly. And a cloak so long that it brushed the floor.

PA UBU. I can’t resist. Shickastick, if I catch him on his own, he’s for it.

MA UBU. At last, Pa Ubu. A proper man at last.

PA UBU. Just a minute. I’m Captain of the Guard. Murder Good King Wenceslas? His Maj of Baloney? I’d rather die.

MA UBU (aside). Shikt. (aloud) You want to be Daddy Mouse forever? Poor Daddy Mouse?

PA UBU. Blubberit, stagger me sideways, I’d rather be poor, honest Daddy Mouse than Big Fat Cat that Nicked the Cream.

MA UBU. What about the brolly? The cloak? The great big hat?

PA UBU. What about them, Ma Ubu?

He goes, slamming the door.

MA UBU. Snikt, what a tight-arse. Never mind. Slipalipt, I’m loosening him. With God’s good help, not to mention mine, I’ll be Queen of Baloney by Saturday.

2 Room in PA UBU’s house, with a table set for a feast. PA UBU, MA UBU.

MA UBU. Well, they’re late. Our guests.

PA UBU. Yes. Stagger me sideways, I’m starving. Ma Ubu, you look really ugly today. Because we’ve got company?

MA UBU (shrugging). Shikt.

PA UBU (grabbing a roast chicken). Dagit, I’m hungry. I’ll get stuck into this. Chicken, right? Snot bad.

MA UBU. Put that down. Leave something for the guests.

PA UBU. There’s plenty. I won’t touch another thing. Look out the window, Ma Ubu. See if our guests are here.

MA UBU (going to the window). No sign of them.

PA UBU snatches his chance and snitches a slice of meat.

Here they are. Captain Dogpile and his Barmpots. Pa Ubu, what are you eating?

PA UBU. Nothing. Collops.

MA UBU. Collops. Collops. Dagnagit, put them down!

PA UBU. Stagger me sideways, I’ll dot you one.

The door opens.

3 PA UBU, MA UBU, DOGPILE, BARMPOTS.

MA UBU. Good evening, gents. So naice to see you. Do sit down.

DOGPILE. Ma Ubu, good evening. Where’s Pa Ubu?

PA UBU. Here! Godnagit, stagger me sideways, I’m not that small.

DOGPILE. Good evening, Pa Ubu. Lads, siddown.

All sit.

PA UBU. Pff ! Any bigger, I’d have smashed the chair.

DOGPILE. Oi, Ma Ubu, what’s for dinner?

MA UBU. I’ll tell you.

PA UBU. I like this part.

MA UBU. Baloney soup. Calfcollops. Chicken. Pâté de dog. Turkey bum. Charlotte Russe.

PA UBU. That’s enough. Snurk! More?

MA UBU (continuing). Ice cream, lettuce, apples, hotpot, tartyfarts, cauliflower shikt.

PA UBU. Dagnagit, I’m paying for this. What d’you take me for, a bank?

MA UBU. Ignore him. He’s barmy.

PA UBU. I’ll barm your bum.

MA UBU. Shut up, Pa Ubu. Eat your burger.

PA UBU. Burger me, it’s bad.

DOGPILE. Bleah, it’s horrible.

MA UBU. Nagnancies, what d’you want?

PA UBU (striking his forehead). Got it! Hang on. I won’t be long.

Exit.

MA UBU. Nah, gents, collops.

DOGPILE. Very nice. All gone.

MA UBU. Some turkeybum?

DOGPILE. Fantastic. Great! Up Ma Ubu.

ALL. Up Ma Ubu.

PA UBU returns, carrying a disgusting brush.

PA UBU. What about three cheers for Pa Ubu?

He pokes the brush at the guests.

MA UBU. Idiot, what are you doing?

PA UBU. It’s lovely. Taste it, taste it.

Several of them taste and die, poisoned.

PA UBU. Ma Ubu, pass the tartyfarts. I’ll hand them round.

MA UBU. Here.

PA UBU. Out, out, the lot of you. Captain Dogpile, I want a word.

THE OTHERS. Hey! We haven’t finished.

PA UBU. Oh yes you have. Out, out! Dogpile, sit.

No one moves.

Still here? Stagger me sideways, where are those tartyfarts? I’ll see to you.

He starts hurling tartyfarts.

ALL. Erg! Foo! Aagh!

PA UBU. Shikt, shikt, shikt. D’you get it? Out!

ALL. Bastard! Swine!

PA UBU. They’ve gone. What a lousy dinner. Dogpile, walkies.

Exeunt.

4 PA UBU, MA UBU, DOGPILE.

PA UBU. Here, Dogpile. Diddums like oo dindins?

DOGPILE. Lovely. All but the shikt.

PA UBU. The shikt was great.

MA UBU. Shickun son goo. That’s French.

PA UBU. Captain Dogpile, I’m going to make you Lord de Lawdy.

DOGPILE. Pardon, Pa Ubu? I thought you were skint.

PA UBU. In a day or two, with your help, I’ll be King of Baloney.

DOGPILE. You’re going to kill Good King Wenceslas?

PA UBU. Aren’t you the clever one?

DOGPILE. If you’re doing for Good King Wenceslas, count me in. I’m his mortal enemy. Me and my Barmpots.

PA UBU (falli...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Translator’s Note
• Introduction
• For Further Reading
• Jarry: Key Dates
• KING UBU (Ubu roi)
• CUCKOLD UBU (Ubu cocu)
• SLAVE UBU (Ubu enchaîné)
• Appendix: UP UBU (Ubu sur la butte)
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information