Theatre of the Absurd or Theatre de la merde : The influence of Alfred Jarry's Ubu plays on Paris Dada

The Dada movement in Paris, which reached its height from 1919-1922, affected the visual arts as well as literature and theatre. Critical to Dada was the use of "gratuitous acts" which were spontaneously initiated with the intent of revealing the insanity of modern life. Members of this group included writers Tristan Tzara, Louis Aragon, Andre Breton (who would later pioneer the Surrealist movement) and Hugo Ball. Each participated in the partially theatrical "Dada soirees." These events included readings of "nonsense" poems and spontaneous performances designed to involve the audience primarily through the technique of surprise and direct confrontation.

In the Dada realm of visual arts, Marcel Duchamp and Hans Arp were among the most visible. While both reveled in the inclusion of chance as part of valid artistic production, Duchamp pioneered the "readymade"-- the designation of a functional object to be art when taken out of its expected context by the artist. Dada artists also utilized language in their visual productions, which lead to a further questioning of reality that Duchamp termed "the fourth dimension."

The ambiguity inherent in the French language (through a series of verbal puns and multiple meanings) intrigued both artists and writers who wanted their works to communicate on several levels simultaneously. Another characteristic common to both art and literature produced during this period was an attempt to defy categorization by genre or medium.

In the theatrical realm, performances would be classified in an intentionally obscure manner, by either assigning what would appear to be an inappropriate genre (e.g. a "comedy" presented as a "tragedy") or by inventing a new category altogether. In this way, Dadaists challenged their audiences to consider the significance of the distance between their production and the "traditional" academy in art, literature or theater.

This paper will discuss the play Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry (1896) as providing a significant influence upon the development on Dada. (Alfred Jarry died in 1907, unaware of the full significance that his contributions would hold for the future.) Presented well before its time, Ubu Roi was inflammatory and controversial at its inception, perhaps most of all for its frequent use of scatological allusions, which commenced with the word which opened the play: merde (shit). Jarry altered the word by adding an extra "r" (merdre) which resulted in a change in pronunciation and emphasis, something he would continue throughout the play by the combining of different word parts and the inventing of nonsense words.

Jarry's play was later heralded by several members of the Dada movement (e.g. Andre Breton, Antonin Artaud, Tristan Tzara) as a source of inspiration because of its plot, characterization and technical production. Specific aspects of the play that were "attractive" to the later Dadaists will be examined in this paper.

First, the confrontational nature of the opening production will be addressed through a consideration of the Montmartre cabaret community in which Jarry lived. In the 1890s in Montmartre, it was not uncommon for a visitor to a cafe or cabaret to be verbally assaulted by the owner/operator. Jarry utilized this informal performance environment in the staging of Ubu Roi, and the Dadaists further modified this procedure in their "soirees."

The design of the costumes and sets must also be considered. Jarry used a "minimalist" approach to the sets, frequently holding up placards to indicate where the action was taking place. The audience then imagined, for instance, "winter in the Alps." The costumes were abstract, unusually large, restricted the actors' movements and muffled their voices. Jarry intended them to stand as symbols communicating "the eternal gestures of humanity." Dadaists would use Jarry's costumes for inspiration not only for use in the theater, but also for an increasingly abstracted representation in the visual arts.

A primary motif of the spiral (which has its genesis on Ubu Roi's huge stomach) is found in the works of Duchamp, Picabia, Arp and others. Also to be considered is Jarry's manipulation of language (which prefigures the "nonsense" poem of the Dadaists) and the plot of Ubu Roi as it concerns tensions between the bourgeoisie and the bohemian artistic community which continued well into the 1930s. Thus, in this paper, it will be demonstrated that Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi helped release the imagination of artists and writers of the twentieth century, and created, well before its time, what is now called the "theater of the absurd."