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Hail to King Ubu!
| Article
# : |
20158 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1992 |
1,593 Words |
| Author
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Claudia Woolgar
Claudia Woolgar is a free-lance theater critic and arts
journalist based in London. |
It is a land inhabited by ghosts. Stalin, Lenin, and Hitler could all don Ubu's crown. But this time it is the turn of the Ceausescu. Pa and Ma Ubu sitting on their thrones: Mr. and Mrs. Ceausescu resurrected on the Romanian stage. A ghastly sight, and yet full of humor as much as horror, immersed as much as horror, immersed in the ambivalence that haunts Romania itself.
Before 1989, Eastern European theater performed with its hands tied behind its back. Steeped in visual metaphors and ambiguous suggestions, it tiptoed round the censors and spoke to those alive to its message. On Christmas Day of 1989 the silencing of the Ceausescus released the voice of the Romanian theater and, eighteen months on, this newfound freedom of speech struts and bellows its time upon the stage. And Romanian director Silviu Purcarete's production of Ubu Roi with scenes from Macbeth is no exception, lashing out as it does against the old regime in a triumphant melange of comedy and darkest tragedy.
Performed initially at the National Theatre of Craiova, Romania, and subsequently at the Edinburgh International Festival in August of last year, Purcarete's production places Shakespeare's tragedy at the heart of Alfred Jarry's farce. Within the context of Romania, the resonances of this union speak boldly about the Ceausescus, the revolution, and the situation in Romania today. But the criticisms the Romanian theater once dared only imply are now placed clearly on stage. Purcarete does not leave the two texts to simply speak for them. Instead, his production places Mr. And Mrs. Ceausescu center stage as Pa and Ma Ubu--not in timid visual suggestion, but with Pa Ubu smiling Mr. Ceausescu's ever-constant smile (so much beloved of the Western photo press, and on his face even in death), and Ma Ubu at his side, always carrying the handbag to which Mrs. Ceausescu clung, even during her "trial." It is a bold and unmistakable portrayal of Romania's former dictators.
The production opens with Ubu Roi, but it is important to recognize that this is not Jarry's play as we know it; not is the inclusion of Shakespeare's text from Macbeth as it is commonly seen on stage. Purcarete has created his version of the two plays, and he framed it with two Presenters who quote from Jarry's writings about his play. "These characters make sure that the audience knows the action is not true," says Purcarete. "They explain the psychology of the play as Jarry and his friends spoke about it. I did not do his play, I did my performance of his idea, and all the time I wanted to keep this distance. To say that this is not true, it is the theater and they are like
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