Jarry, Alfred

Jarry, Alfred (1873–1907), French poet and dramatist, whose Ubu-roi is now considered the founder-play of the modern avant-garde theatre. Written when Jarry was 15 years old and first performed in 1888 as a marionette play, it was given its first live stage production by Gémier at the Théâtre de l'Œuvre (see LUGNÉ-POË) in 1896. A savagely funny, anarchic revolt against society and the conventions of the naturalistic theatre, it scandalized audiences in 1896 and still has considerable impact, as Vilar's successful revival in 1958 at the Théâtre des Nations amply demonstrated. Père Ubu, vicious, cowardly, coarse, pompously cruel, and unashamedly amoral, is a farcical prototype of the later anti-hero of the nuclear age. Many of the marionette elements in the play, expressly demanded by Jarry in his stage instructions to Gémier, have become common currency in the work of playwrights such as Genet and Ionesco and directors such as Brecht and Planchon: the use of masks, skeleton sets, crude pantomime, and stylized speech to establish character, gross farce and slapstick elements, placards indicating scene changes, cardboard horses slung round actors' necks, and similar unrealistic props. Jarry returned to Mère and Père Ubu in other plays—Ubu cocu (completed in 1898, but not published or performed until 1944), Ubu enchaîné (1899), and the marionette play, Ubu sur la butte (1901)—but without recapturing the same creative spark. In 1966 an English translation of Ubu-roi was produced at the Royal Court Theatre.