Kurzbeschreibung
Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi is a radical adaptation of Alfred Jarry's "Ubu Roi" (1896) by David Thomas from the American avant-garage band Pere Ubu. The production premiered April 25 and 26 2008 at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. Since then it has been produced at festivals and in concert.
This theatrical adaptation, written by Pere Ubu’s singer David Thomas, approaches theater with the unsettling ethos that the band Pere Ubu has applied to music production since 1975. It incorporates the narrative voices of abstract and concrete sound into musical structure, creates an aural Theater of the Imagination, and facilitates the Intrusive Other – a mechanism by which the telling of a story incorporates Points Of View that run in parallel or at some angle to the central narrative – crossing it, intruding, overlaying, contradicting, deprecating, or even ignoring it.
Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi does not promote mayhem. It preserves mayhem. The theatrical production is framed by fourteen wide-screen animations from film-makers The Brothers Quay, which are synched in real time to the live performance of songs by the band Pere Ubu. Animated Scene Placards introduce and describe each change of scene. Band members leave their instruments and emerge to perform the cast roles. Musical improvisation, audio samples and ambient electronica are spread across the 100 minute, two part production. Puppet-like choreographies, chaotic interventions, stark staging, and anti-naturalistic dramatic passages preserve the spirit of Jarry's intentions. And while other music groups have ventured into theater, it’s never been to the extent that the band itself, as a self-contained unit, undertakes all aspects of the production: direction, stage management, light design, and the fabrication of all costumes, stage furniture and props.
"Whoever you personally think is the Bad Guy,” Thomas said, “whether you demonize those on the Left or the Right, or everyone In-Between – the Church or the State, Big Business or Big Labor – Père Ubu can supply the face and voice. Ubu is a portrait of the soul of every do-gooder monster. Like water, Ubu is the universal solvent."
This theatrical adaptation, written by Pere Ubu’s singer David Thomas, approaches theater with the unsettling ethos that the band Pere Ubu has applied to music production since 1975. It incorporates the narrative voices of abstract and concrete sound into musical structure, creates an aural Theater of the Imagination, and facilitates the Intrusive Other – a mechanism by which the telling of a story incorporates Points Of View that run in parallel or at some angle to the central narrative – crossing it, intruding, overlaying, contradicting, deprecating, or even ignoring it.
Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi does not promote mayhem. It preserves mayhem. The theatrical production is framed by fourteen wide-screen animations from film-makers The Brothers Quay, which are synched in real time to the live performance of songs by the band Pere Ubu. Animated Scene Placards introduce and describe each change of scene. Band members leave their instruments and emerge to perform the cast roles. Musical improvisation, audio samples and ambient electronica are spread across the 100 minute, two part production. Puppet-like choreographies, chaotic interventions, stark staging, and anti-naturalistic dramatic passages preserve the spirit of Jarry's intentions. And while other music groups have ventured into theater, it’s never been to the extent that the band itself, as a self-contained unit, undertakes all aspects of the production: direction, stage management, light design, and the fabrication of all costumes, stage furniture and props.
"Whoever you personally think is the Bad Guy,” Thomas said, “whether you demonize those on the Left or the Right, or everyone In-Between – the Church or the State, Big Business or Big Labor – Père Ubu can supply the face and voice. Ubu is a portrait of the soul of every do-gooder monster. Like water, Ubu is the universal solvent."
