Ubu: 2019
- Co-directed by Carl Grose and Mike Shepherd
- Music by Charles Hazlewood
- Design by Michael Vale
Ubu fully embraced the Kneehigh spirit of giving people a good night out. In this show, the audience response drove the action. Members of the audience took part in an Olympics-style competition, they sang and they even went to war! Music formed an integral part of the show. Ubu was originally performed in non-traditional spaces, for example at Bristol’s Marble Factory, and it was a show that came out of a determination to make theatre even when budgets were tight. The Tristan & Yseult set was reused and repurposed, and the cardboard aesthetic matched the original style of Alfred Jarry (who wrote Ubu Roi).
Ubu was Kneehigh’s final show.
One of the things I’m most pleased about with our show is that I think we’ve done the original play really well. Alfred Jarry was our spiritual guide. His ground-breaking and highly controversial notions of theatre in his lifetime are absolutely how we think about making theatre with Kneehigh. He hated “realistic” painted backdrops – tropes of the naturalistic style at the time. When he wrote that Ubu enters riding a horse, he says either come in on a REAL horse or, even better, a cardboard one. Cardboard became our lead aesthetic for this show. Throwaway. Hand-made. Cheap. Punky. So on a level, I feel we’ve collaborated well with him and hopefully done his work justice. I hope there’s something therapeutic about seeing this show. Singing together in protest. Laughing at the buffoon. Weeping for the world. The play is also mad. Absurd. Characters burst into Brittany Spears songs. They have strange dreams. There’s a bear!
