Modern version of ‘Ubu the King’ plays up social critique in the spirit of Occupy Wall Street

Writing a review for “Ubu the King” is difficult because it’s a difficult play to describe. If indeed it is a play—one can arguably suggest that it is more of a political manifesto against the grotesque excesses of society or even a freak show where capitalist culture is put on display as the main attraction.

“Ubu the King” is a modern adaptation of French writer Alfred Jarry’s “Ubu Roi,” presented by the Barnard College Department of Theatre and Columbia University Major in Drama and Theatre Arts. It premiered Thursday, Dec. 8 and will also run on Friday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 10 at 3 and 8 p.m. at the Glicker Milstein Black Box Theatre in the Diana Center.

The eponymous character, Papa Ubu, is performed with gusto by Jake Lasser, CC ’12. A modern update to the original 1890s portrayal, Lasser was clad in a Spider-man fat suit and Quailman-esque diaper strategically emblazoned with a Target logo and party blower.

Lizi Myers, BC ’12, plays the conniving, equally grotesque “Mama Ubu,” or as Ubu affectionately refers to her, “Madame of Shit.” While Lasser revels in his character’s horrid actions, Myers seems restrained. It seems like the goal of her outrageous performance is just to be convincingly nasty. There’s something too staged, too rigid to her acting that is unpleasant for all the wrong reasons.

Of note were Adrian Alea, CC ’15, as Ladislaus and Harry Neff, CC ’15, as Buggerlaus, the spoiled, juvenile sons of King Wenceslaus (Josh Magid, GS/JTS ’13) and Queen Rosamund (India Choquette, BC ’14). Alea captured children’s naïve obsession with superheroes, leading a musical rendition of the Spider-man theme song. The number was pertinent for its digs at “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” as well as its references to Ubu’s costume. Neff’s Buggerlaus led a timely, uproarious satire of Occupy Wall Street, calling to his followers, “Tell me what democracy looks like!” His supporters responded, “This is what democracy looks like!”

But it was Yoonjin Ha, CC ’13, who stole the show. As the Christopher Walken-accented, Rambo-attired Captain Bordure and later as the almost completely bare Bear, Ha managed simultaneously to entertain the audience, bemuse the women of the play, and showcase the dark side of modern culture.

The emcee Lizzy Brooks, CC ’12, ferried the audience through the sea of outlandish mayhem only to be subsumed by its allure at the end of the play. Brooks displayed a gifted singing voice—but she never injected as much force as Myers did with Mama Ubu’s shrieks of devilish delight.

Following the Thursday performance was a post-show discussion with Judith Malina, playwright, activist, and one of the founders of the New York-based Living Theatre. While many students will know Malina for her part as Grandmama Addams in the film version of “The Addams Family,” Malina is renowned for her long career in film and theater as well as her firebrand activism for the use of theater to promote social change.

Along with her fellow Living Theatre founder Julian Beck, Malina translated Jarry’s “Ubu Roi” for the Living Theatre 1952 production at the Cherry Lane Theatre. When the fire department suspiciously shut down the play for so-called flammable set pieces, Malina chased the fire inspector out of the theater onto the street with a bamboo spear, cementing Malina’s place in theater urban legend. During the post-show discussion, Malina stressed that Jarry’s play is about the “negative shit” of society and strives to unflinchingly portray that to audiences.

There is a fine line between satirizing the “negative shit” of society and performing a shit work. But in the case of “Ubu the King,” it seems as if that doesn’t even matter—because they’re the same thing.