5Pound Theatre’s Ubu Roi
Reviewed by Sarah Gates
The Fringe always offers audiences inventive and peculiar shows; those you won’t see at any other time of the year. 5Pound Theatre’s Ubu Roi is that performance.
The audience is ushered through a random door propped between structures through to a small tent containing 30 seats or less. People in the front row are urged to pull a tarp over their lower body. Five actors start on stage, staring at the audience while ominous music sounds over the loudspeaker. They stand in a puddle of mud that reaches to their ankles.
5Pound Theatre presents Alfred Jarry’s classic play, Ubu Roi, a parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth using a language of juvenile insults to paint a dystopian, but disturbingly real, view of human existence and its future. This reimagining follows the basic plot of Macbeth quite closely. There is a smaller cast, although they manage to replicate the scale of war and a royal uprising successfully, with the use of sound and clever staging.
The script is modernised, to hilarious effect, and the gender roles are thrown out; Dadda Ubu and Mama Ubu are both played by women, for example. This removes the traditional patriarchal structure, allowing the performance to concentrate on the ideas of lust, greed, and morality. This was a bit confusing at first and didn’t entirely succeed due to the titles ‘Dadda’, ‘Mama’ and ‘King’ which consistently reinforced the male roles as those in power. Also, the characters used insults that are derogatory towards women; ‘bitch’, for instance, only directed at the traditionally female characters, such as Mama Ubu (representing Lady Macbeth).
The most interesting aspect of the performance is the mud, or ‘shit,’ which is an analogy for our society’s materialistic greed and the inadequacy of obtaining one’s desires. Although the mud first appears to be just part of a clever set, it soon becomes evident that it stands in for all other props. In the place of swords or more modern weapons, the actors throw handfuls of mud. The audience’s tarp was definitely necessary and even the second row received a few splatters. Instead of food or mime, the actors stuff their face with mud — or some other dark, oozing liquid which looks disgusting, but is edible. Whatever it is, it’s genius. The in-your-face technique (literally, if you don’t get that tarp up fast enough) enhances both the humour in the script and its complex themes.
No matter how weird, 5Pound Theatre’s Ubu Roi is funny, intriguing and incredibly well executed. It is certainly one to watch; just don’t wear your Sunday best.
5Pound Theatre’s Ubu Roi, Murlawirrapurka/Rymill Park, 13 Feb – 22 Feb
