Jarry's original play – which infamously begins with Ubu mispronouncing the word"shit"in French – provoked a riot in 1896 and closed after its opening performance.
It has since been recognised as an important precursor to modernism and absurdist theatre,and has gained fresh currency since the election of President Trump.
Certainly,theatrically educated commentators haven't been slow to discern a case of life imitating art. Childish,reckless,greedy,boorish and vain – in short,a colossal walking id who's in every way unsuited to power – Ubu almost spookily prefigures the"infant-in-chief". Even their entrances echo each other:Ubu mispronounces merde,Trump tweets"covfefe". The list of resemblances goes on.
And while Donald Trump isn't mentioned in this version of King Ubu,the puppetry manages a sly bit of one-upmanship:Ubu is much bigger,and even more orange,than the US President.