MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Ubu! A Singalong Satire, Leeds Playhouse
Alfred Jazzy's anarchic satire gets an acute update
ABSURDIST ACTION: Ubu! A Singalong Satire
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
ALFRED JARRY'S Ubu Roi caused a riot in 1896 with its depiction of a tin-pot dictator's rise to power, and Kneehigh's semi-improvised update of the political satire is as riotously funny.
Co-directors Carl Grose and Mike Shepherd have left the play rough around the edges which, combined with a high level of audience interaction, creates a spirit of anarchy in a production that, in the spirit of Jarry, lacks any subtlety.
Characters are literally flushed down a giant toilet and the often puerile jokes and double entendres create a pantomime of delightful absurdity.
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