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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
[Steve Tanner]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
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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