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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]
JOHN FLINT explores the Appleby Blue development, winner of the Stirling prize 2025
GORDON PARSONS enjoys the wealth of wisdom and the clarity of expression from a dialogue between Chomsky and Mujica
GUILLERMO THOMAS enjoys a survey of the current state of the CIA (aka Langley) from an expert and insider of sorts
MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O CONNOR and JOHN GREEN review The Choral, Belen, Dragonfly, and Colossal Wreck
WILL STONE is frustrated by a performance that chooses to garble the lyrics and drown the songs in reverb
RITA DI SANTO points out the social experience of exploitation and oppression that inform the popular winners at this year’s festival
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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