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Craig: ''Ubu for President' updates an absurdist classic
By Pat Craig
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 08/01/2008 12:01:22 AM PDT
It could, though — it can always get worse. Alfred Jarry knew that when he wrote "Ubu for President" in 1896, the year William McKinley beat William Jennings Bryan in the presidential race, Utah became the 45th state, Queen Victoria became the longest reigning British monarch and George Burns was born.
Jarry wrote the play about "Ubu Roi," a fictional tyrant who derives great pleasure from trampling his enemies, and is described in the work as a character "so twisted, so perverse, so utterly self-interested and greedy and petty that it's difficult to write him off."
Josh Costello adapted the Ubu tale for contemporary audiences, and will premiere it Saturday in Berkeley's John Hinkel Park as the Shotgun Players' free summer outdoor production. Just to give the show a modern feel, the characters have been thrust into a modern setting with all of their skullduggery intact.
What Costello is also striving to keep intact is the knack Jarry showed at making the worst parts of human nature laughable — a great tool in helping overcome evil.
Shotgun's artistic director Patrick Dooley directs the show that features music arranged by Dave Malloy and lyrics by Dave Garrett.
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