Ubu

• Theatre

by Alfred Jarry / directed by Johan Simons

The world is in turmoil, everything we relied on no longer safe. He’s back! Sending his Ego-notations around the world. Spreading disinformation. Blabbermouthing. Distorting language at will and building alternative realities: “Merdre! Shrit!” The shit has hit the fan – and a pox on all morals. King Ubu is acting out his dreams of omnipotence. Killing and terrorizing his own people, going to war with other countries. What a joke. Hiding bitter truths. Nothing more fitting these days than sending King Ubu, Alfred Jarry’s brazen despot, on stage. 128 years ago, he forced dainty noses to smell what they had always turned away from: Their own excretions. With insights into the fatal affinity of monstrosity and ridiculousness, of no holds barred and endlessly hollow banality. “King Ubu” is the story of an egomaniacal petty bourgeois, an insolent tyrant whose devastation can be traced through history and right up to our times. At this moment, he is shattering democracy, delighting in the lack of resistance. The “Debraining-Song” is sung: See the machine working, watch it! See the brain bursting, watch it! See the pensioners trembling… Hurray for horny assholes, hurray for Papa Ubu!”

Since season 2013-2014, Johan Simons has directed adaptations of novels for Thalia Theater, among others “The German Lesson”, “The Rider on the White Horse” (invited to Theatertreffen Berlin 2017) and “The Idiot”. His most recent work was the baroque play “Life is a Dream”.

“What makes working with Johan so special to me: He manages to bring together pacing, keeping measure and form on the one hand, and inner heat and freedom of acting on the other. His way of looking via this kind of paradox is almost always wide open and fresh and new.” Jens Harzer

Premiere 28. February 2025, Thalia Theater