The Exquisite Ubu project
An Exquisite Corpse of Ubu Roi
By Alfred Jarry
adapted by [Your Name Here]
A Surrealist Play for a Surreal Moment…
In December of 1896, the writer Alfred Jarry’s seminal play Ubu Roi was performed twice at a cafe in Paris. The play’s scatalogical humor and anti-realist style caused riots but was a formative moment in the avant garde theater. While the play derived from a schoolboy prank that was meant to mock Jarry's hated physics teacher, its craven, incompetent and gluttonous protagonist is seen as a stand-in for tyrants everywhere. Jarry’s savage and absurdist play is often read as a commentary on despotism.
Flash forward one hundred and thirty years later, American injustice abounds. We can’t let it go without taking action, even if it's only symbolic. We feel the time is ripe for a revival of Ubu Roi. And we need you!
We plan to create a script that reflects the concerns not just of a single writer, but of many. We are seeking a group of playwrights from every possible cultural and social background to reinterpret Jarry’s seminal work for the current (unfortunate) moment in American history. The writing will be done in the manner of an Exquisite Corpse, the collaborative writing game developed in the 1920’s by the French surrealists.
In an Exquisite Corpse participants collectively create a story, poem, drawing, or, in this case, an adapted play with each artist adding to the text without seeing contributions of the other collaborators. The technique is designed to bypass rational thought and tap into the "collective unconscious" to create fresh, bizarre or surprising results. For more information about the Exquisite Corpse Game, please click this link.
By my Green Candle, how will that work?
In Ubu Roi, (and in the French Theater generally), a scene begins when a character exits or enters the stage. Since there are 45 characters in the play, many of the scenes in Jarry’s play are not even a page long, with the longest scene being five pages.
Participating writers will be given a single scene from the play to revise or rewrite in their own way. The first line of each distinct scene will remain the same, so that the revised pieces can be linked together to tell the whole “story”. Naturally, all participating writers will be working from the same text which will be provided (you can read it here).
There may be other elements of the play that we will ask writers to keep consistent in their writing, such as Ubu’s iconic “Green Candle”, a symbol of the perverse and chaotic nature of his rule. Writers who would like to participate will be given a detailed set of instructions and will be asked to attend a Zoom meeting on Sunday March 1st @ 6:00pm EST about the project on where we will go over logistics and answer any questions you may have. We will also provide you with some background information on the play prior to this meeting, so that all writers are working with (more or less) the same understanding of the play.
As to the tone of the project: Alfred Jarry wrote Ubu Roi about his physics teacher, Félix-Frédéric Hébert but he never mentioned him by name. The play endures because it is a comment on greed, cowardice, cruelty, and chaos rather than a specific individual.
We hope to take our lead from Jarry. While it’s tempting to make An Exquisite Corpse of Ubu Roi about an abominable leader, we’d prefer to leave the pointed satire and one-liners to the late night comedians. It is our hope that this project will be about the larger issues than one man, repugnant though he may be. Plus, we’d rather not poison the air with any names.
Where and when will this play be performed?
When we have a script, we will put out a call for actors. We expect the play will be done in an ad hoc manner with minimal rehearsal, for a single (free) performance to coincide with Fall of Freedom’s National Call for Creative Resistance on May 1st. While we hope to have a workable script by early April, FOF has an additional action planned in October, so we can always opt for the fall if our timeline needs to be extended. Regardless, we look forward to being part of the FOF lineup for 2026.
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We are currently in discussion with several theaters about donating their spaces for a performance, but if you have a lead on a space, please let us know! Please note, we are also considering alternative spaces such as churches and public spaces as well as theaters.
What about Phynance?
No one involved in this project will be paid. The performance will be free. If, by some quirk of fate, we were to make any money from the project, it would be donated to a pro-democracy organization and a full financial accounting would be provided to all participants.
Because this is a no-budget production, we will be asking our artists to help promote the project. Please be aware, we will be using the names of all participating writers in our advertising and PR materials. If that is not okay with you, then this is not the project for you.
Who is doing this?
Currently An Exquisite Corpse of Ubu Roi is being administered by Jenny Lombard and Madelyn Chapman.