PRESIDENT PAL
'Ubu for President' Play considers the cost of voting based solely on a candidate's charm
Andrea Abney
Thursday, July 31, 2008
What's more important to the U.S. voter: A candidate's stand on the issues facing Americans, or the fact that he's charming and would be a fun guy to share a beer with?
Many might hope it's the former; Patrick Dooley isn't so sure.
"I think there's something really interesting about how we can find ourselves being charmed by someone because of the fact they can't say things quite right, or they seem like a good ol' guy," says Dooley, artistic director of Shotgun Players. The troupe's new play, he says, examines "how we can find ourselves drawn into these personalities, and so then we can think about what might be the repercussions of (voting for that person)."
That's where Pa Ubu comes in.
"Ubu for President" is adapted from Alfred Jarry's "Ubu Roi," which is one of the early plays of the absurdist movement. "Ubu Roi's" main character is an unlikable, grotesque monster. But he can be charming, too.
Dooley and writer Josh Costello kept many of the same situations and characters from "Ubu Roi," but turned Ubu into a presidential candidate. They wanted to examine the electoral process but have fun with it at the same time, especially with voters facing so many key issues in this year's election.
"This election is certainly the most important in my 40 years," Dooley says. "That being said, I felt like it was also really important to step back from that a little bit."
"Ubu for President" maintains many of the absurdist traits of "Ubu Roi"; in the 21st century, that means impromptu show tunes, killer cheerleaders and fights with dirty laundry and old food. Actors will give the audience projectiles to be thrown during the show, and viewers will vote at intermission.
"We wanted to keep the original's sense of storybook silliness," Costello says, "with a king and a ghost and a revenge plot right out of Shakespeare mixed in with a lot of present-day electoral shenanigans."
"What we're really hoping to do is the audience will start to side with Pa Ubu despite the fact that he's a monster," Dooley says. The goal is "to see at the end ... how could that possibly have happened?"
That's how the Shotgun Players "get the bitter pill in with the confection," Dooley adds.
"There's certainly an edge that we're also trying to keep," he says. "It's a comedy - kind of - but there's certainly moments ... where we're really wanting to remind everybody that people are dying. Even if it's with a pom-pom, that they're dying.
"It's a play that celebrates democracy with also showing how absurd and grotesque and insane it is, and how difficult and messy it is."
4 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Through Sept. 14. Free. John Hinkel Park, Arlington Avenue at Southampton Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 841-6500, www.shotgunplayers.org.
- Andrea Abney
