Absurd and unique: Balally players hint at madness with a touch of nonsense

MORE than a hint of madness from Balally Players with ‘The Ubu Trilogy’ in the Tallaght Theatre.

This is a nutty production full of ‘cuckoo characters’ with strong language, exploring bizarre ideas. The Ubu Trilogy is an off-the-wall collection of plays penned by French author Alfred Jarry (translated by Kenneth McLeish).

Jarry’s trilogy of plays about the comically grotesque character of Pa Ubu, satirising power, greed, and bourgeois pretension, is a masterclass in absurdist theatre.

Provoking riots at its opening in 1896, Ubu is acclaimed as the touchstone for the Dada and Surrealist movements, the Theatre of the Absurd, and much of the rest of experimental theatre in the 20th century.

The trilogy consists of ‘King Ubu’, ‘Ubu Cuckold’, and ‘Slave Ubu.’ In ‘King Ubu’, Pa clips the king and clinchs the crown before he inevitably messes things up and flees to England. ‘Cuckold’ sees Pa and his nefarious minions, the Barmpots, happen upon the home of poor old Peardrop and his polyhedrons, who ransack his home, in a positively preposterous turn of events. Finally, in ‘Slave Ubu’, Pa decides he’s had enough of ruling and opts to live a life of servitude and slavery, to – you guessed it – unexpected results.

The show stars Seán Woods as the titular hero alongside Caoimhe Cronin as his loyal wife and queen, Ma Ubu, and features a wide variety of colourful characters.

Prepare for nonsense, as Balally Players tackle the absurd world that is Ubu. This show takes you through three unique Ubu plays, satirising many of Shakespeare’s plays, and at the end of it all you’ll be wondering if we learnt anything. It’s plenty of fun, a lot of nonsense and very bizarre.

Led by All-Ireland winning director, Philip Byrne, and running at the Tallaght Theatre (old Cuckoo’s Nest – not the Civic Theatre), Kilnamanagh, D24 WT1W, from February 5 to February 8 at 7.30pm, the Ubu Trilogy is sure to be a theatre-going experience that you won’t soon forget.

Tickets are available for The Ubu Trilogy on Allevents and through any of the Balally social media accounts.