After us the savage god: Alfred Jarry, Ubu Roi and symbolism in fin-de-siècle Paris

Abstract

Since its production in 1896, Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi has been considered amongst the most famous events in theatre history. The opening night of the play is remembered as one of the most celebrated and colourful theatre riots of all time, and Jarry is given a privileged position as a 'necessary inclusion in any responsible history of modern theatre as a whole, and avant-garde theatre in particular.'David G. Zinder, The Surrealist Connection: An Approach to a Surrealist Aesthetic of Theatre (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1980) 13., also see Frantisek Deak, Symbolist Theater: The Formation of an Avant-Garde (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993) 228. Similarly, Ubu Roi is often proposed as one of the most important productions to break from the nineteenth century and drag theatrical form into the modernist period.For a brief selection in support of this contention, see Christopher Innes, Avant-Garde Theatre 1892-1992 (London: Routledge, 1993) 22., Günter Berghaus, Theatre, Performance and the Historical Avant-Garde (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) 46-7., Deak, Symbolist Theater:The Formation of an Avant-Garde 228., Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd, 3rd Rev. ed. (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd, 1980)356., Bert and Knopf Cardullo, Robert, ed., Theater of the Avant-Garde 1890-1950: A Critical Anthology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001) 77. A typical opinion is that of John Henderson, who declares in The First Avant-Garde that Ubu Roi is 'a seminal play if ever there was one, and in a sense, the most influential avant-gardist play of all.'John A. Henderson, The First Avant-Garde 1887-1894: Sources of the Modern French Theatre (London: Harrap, 1971) 126.