Promotional image of the cast rioting in their theatre seatsIt’s cit­izen versus everything in this totally ori­gin­al, entirely reima­gined adapt­a­tion of Alfred Jarry­’s clas­sic avant-garde satire Ubu Rex. Grot­esque, ridicu­lous and deeply pro­found, this irrev­er­ent adapt­a­tion of Ubu Rex draws from a huge range of source mater­i­al to amp­li­fy the mes­sages from Jarry’s ori­gin­al nar­rat­ive. The live show is mul­ti­me­dia in every respect, with Ubu Sux also being live-streamed to devices all over the world includ­ing this year’s Mel­bourne Fringe, one of a huge num­ber of arts’ fest­ivals to adapt to 2020’s restric­tions on phys­ic­al gath­er­ings and embrace digit­al deliv­ery.

Dir­ect­or Paula van Beek says that the Whitireia Stage & Screen stu­dents are lov­ing the chance to explore work­ing with tech­no­lo­gies that look set to become com­mon­place in the future. “How we’re manip­u­lated to hear, believe and pay atten­tion to people in pos­i­tions of power is at the heart of Ubu Sux. The show asks some hard ques­tions about ‘the eco­nomy of influ­ence’ and the effect it is hav­ing on young people all over the world. This new adapt­a­tion aims to dis­solve some of the uncon­scious bias that’s tem­plated into decisions about which stor­ies get told. When I ini­tially took a trans­la­tion of Ubu Rex to the com­pany, they artic­u­lated some really clear con­cerns about what it would mean to choose a play that gives a revolt­ing char­ac­ter like Pa Ubu so much lime­light. And that was a really excit­ing moment. Even though Jarry’s Ubu plays are satir­ic­al, the stu­dents poin­ted out that air­time is still air­time –  even if you are pok­ing fun.  We decided to explore how Pa Ubu could be muted, side-lined or ignored to allow the oth­er char­ac­ters in the play to have a chance to speak and tell their stor­ies. We wanted lots of dif­fer­ent per­spect­ives rep­res­en­ted.”

The cast and crew are excited to explore dif­fer­ent points of view – not only of the char­ac­ters but also of how audi­ences can see the work, wheth­er that’s in the theatre, or through screen. van Beek says “We can’t wait to bring these new char­ac­ters, new per­spect­ives and brand-new ori­gin­al songs to life for oth­er people. They could be in the room with us, at home watch­ing online, or in the cinema at Te Aua­ha see­ing the show beam in from next door to the big screen… we’ll know they’re there and feel the con­nec­tion. I won­der how dif­fer­ent their exper­i­ences will be?”

  • Ubu sux on at Te Aua­ha, 17–19 Novem­ber 2020