[2014058] 5pound theatre’s Ubu Roi
5pound theatre @ Gluttony
8:00pm, Tue 25 Feb 2014
So – I’m waiting around outside Firefly for Love & Other Acts of Theft when I get a text message from a friend – 5pound had announced that they were cancelling their Wednesday night performance of Ubu Roi, to which I’d already bought a ticket. I’m faced with a decision: do I (essentially) swap the two shows in my Schedule so I can fit them both in, forfeiting my ticket-in-hand for Love, or do I miss out on Ubu?
The answer is always “see as much as you can”, so I blurted an apology to the Firefly box office and dashed across the road to Gluttony via FringeTIX, arriving just as the (capacity!) audience for Ubu Roi filed through a previously-unnoticed doorway in the back of the venue. As we were guided to our seats in a makeshift covered area – reminiscent of an open-fronted tent – the much-vaunted mud-pit of a “stage” is clearly visible; the front two rows of the audience were handed plastic sheets for protection from any mud that happened to become airborne.
Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi was only performed once in its original 1896 incarnation; it closed after the first performance after public outcry (and a riot broke out) due to the profanity of the script. 5pound’s presentation is equally profane (with the dialogue updated for a modern audience), and no less comedic; the Macbeth-pisstaking in the script remains strong, and the vulgarity is most certainly played for laughs. The relationship between Papa Ubu and Mama Ubu is delicious – vicious and biting and absurd, it’s a wonderfully performed piece of work.
In fact, all the performances (by an all-but-one female cast) are strong, albeit with pantomimic overtones… but they’re contrasted with some pretty sloppy – both figuratively and literally – direction. This is most notable in the closing stages, as the cast nod and wink their way towards the mud pit, with the expected mud-slinging match erupting more out of spectacle than script. But the tongue-in-cheek nature of the battle makes it feel… well, refreshing.
Ubu Roi could have been a juvenile exercise in resurrecting a profane script, but it manages to feel committed, honest, and fun. I’m still a little pissed they cancelled their last show, mind you, but I’m glad that I decided to catch it when I did.
(58) 5pound theatre's Ubu Roi: Muddy and profane, it manages to transcend immaturity to provide decent entertainment. #ff2014 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 25, 2014