Robots, Schmobots ....

... It's all about the puppets:




Behold them resting up for their big trip to Cleveland, which commences in 5 short hours.

(PS to roboteers: No, no, it's about the robots, too. But mostly the puppets. Though there are also people in the show, actual human beings. Imagine that!)

The first night of the last weekend ...

... was nuts on the Ubu side. Absolutely nuts. From looking at these shadowy onlookers near the beginning of the evening--

--you probably would not guess that they would be our wildest audience yet. They took the notion of "play" to unprecedented extremes; several of us seriously worried we might have a riot on our hands. NOT the kind of riot Ubu provoked in its first incarnation, when people thought it went too far, but the kind of riot where they were eager to go even farther than we were willing to. Trust me, the place looked like a frat house after a beer blast by the time we (er, they) were done.

As the Carnival Barker, I am partly responsible for the mayhem, because I gave these otherwise innocent-looking folks the very weapons they would soon use against us. (Ever been shot in the face with a Nerf dart?) But I don't think I added that much more to the mix last night than usual. These people just felt like getting rowdy. Spring fever, perhaps? And don't assume it was younguns--the oldest two people in the crowd were the ringleaders.

Ironically, we had originally thought this level of madness might transpire every night, and then when it didn't, we started to take for granted that all future Ubu viewers would be polite and respectful and suss out the unspoken etiquette of our unusual setup. But no!

Me, I thought the whole affair was fascinating as a study in mob psychology. (As Ma Ubu put it after the show, "I've never been on the receiving end of a 'Power to the people!' chant before this.") Then again, I wasn't the one getting pelted with plastic paratroopers and dodging 70 exploding confetti bomblets.

What will tonight's final (and already long sold-out) performance bring? Stay tuned!

Transhumans, tweets, games without frontiers, and the joys of turning in your fellow citizens

Time for another collection of items that caught my attention recently because of their connection to aspects of WoyUbu:



•This hourlong episode of the public radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge devoted to computers is a must for anyone interested in the ramifications of techno-culture. I recommend the interviews with Lawrence Lessig, one of the founders of Creative Commons, on copyright issues raised by mash-ups and other digital art; Sherry Turkle of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self on the ways in which we are developing relationships with personal robotic devices; and sociologist James Hughes, executive director of the World Transhumanist Association, on the quest to merge human flesh with computer technology in search of immortality and/or "transhuman" interspecies breeding; plus a couple of quick mash-ups by GirlTalk and DJ Spooky. But the real treat for Ubu-ites is surely the segment on video game designer Jason Rohrer; I have no idea how well known he is among those in the know, but his work sounds pretty remarkable and far beyond the average computer game. (Here's Passage, about mortality, and Between, a game about dreams and "stale evidence" of the Other. And here's Rohrer's homepage, which contains links to more games and all kinds of other stuff.)



•Much of what Rohrer says about games is echoed in intriguing ways in this brief segment from another public radio show on Peg Tyre's book The Trouble with Boys, and specifically its take on violent fantasy in video games (like the one in our Ubu). In a nutshell, Tyre argues that such games can potentially serve a beneficial role as an outlet for natural tendencies. She, like Rohrer, has much to say about the essence of "play" in the lives of both adults and children.

•This is the funniest (and smartest) thing I've ever encountered about the phenomenon of Twitter and Facebook status udpates. Three cheers for Brian Unger!

•Finally, courtesy of BoingBoing, an ad campaign from the London police urging citizens to report suspicious activity:

Cory Doctorow notes the "stupidity" of

the idea that you should report your neighbors to the police for looking at the creepy surveillance technology around them. This is the first step in making it illegal to debate whether the surveillance state is a good or bad thing.

Perhaps this weekend I will encourage the Ubu audience to report any Woyzeck spectators they catch staring at the surveillance cameras aimed at them ...

Ubu from the audience's perspective

Tonight's performance was pretty hoppin'--thanks in large part to the crowd. And talk about crowded! We turned away at least 20 people, and crammed about twice as many people into the Ubu/"Play" side as we've ever done before. (If you're planning to attend next weekend, be sure to reserve your tickets ASAP!) Here's a small portion of the Ubu-ites, just before the show:



Tonight I passed a camera around and asked these lovely folks to shoot whatever they wanted. Alas, the batteries died about 15 minutes into the show, but here are a few examples of what they found photoworthy during that time:








Later in the show some of these same folks, and many other Ubu audience members, provided live Twitter updates of what was unfolding before them (or in their sordid imaginations). You can read what they wrote here (I think).

Live from our second Friday night show!

Here we are, live on the Ubu side of the wall, during our 3rd performance. Going well, so far, I'd say. Well, things are not looking so good for Pa Ubu or Woyzeck, but that's none of our concern. Let's hear what the Ubu audience has to say thus far:



FREE CANDY!! - Catherine Willett

Definitely choose the "playing" side... mad fun. - Matt Uebbing

Playing drinking games with my son on the "action" side...fun! CHRIS UEBBING

I ... I saw a bear lose its head! - Christopher Schobert

who wants to play Super Ubu Smash Brothers? the playing side does ... Jared Mobarak

You like that don't you? Adam Boyle

Boggerlas is h-o-t-t hot ~Stacey Kromer

The robots are awesome!! Brandon Passno

Opening night players, live from the Ubu side!

Check them out--what a lovely bunch!

Now let's hear what they think of the show so far...
(We're about halfway through now.)

This is my second time seeing The Real Dream Cabaret, and I always like their act. The characters are wonderfully weird, deranged, but also very endearing. The technology of the production is pretty awesome, the idea of two shows running at the same time. When given the choice between Play or No Play, choose Play. -Michael

As a first time viewer of this show it is interesting to know that you are able to watch the show at a different angle. There are actually two shows at once which makes you want to see both sides of the spectrum, The actors adapt to the changes and audience interaction quite well and are very aware of their surroundings. -Justin

LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD.
-Ariel

WoyUbu is definitely a new theatrical experience for me. The question: "Watch or play," at the ticket desk really set the tone, and I think it should be seen from both ways. Ubu-world is great fun... But as far as the serious side of things, I have very little idea of what is going on in the other space, and I'm sure it's a completely different experience! -Kelsey


As for those who "play," they get a live experience of the inner workings of WOYZECK's mind, while watching his reality play out. Likewise, those who "watch" get to experience WOYZECK'S reality while watching his mind play out. The "players" get to take part in a nerf gun war, video game action, sword fights, a radio show, on screen filming, while nippling on treats...It's an experience one will likely not forget....

-Collin

Opening night, 1896

From a MilkMag detailed story on Ubu's creator and the notorious opening-night (and preview-night) responses to the play:

On the evening of [December] 9th, [1896], friends, intellectuals, and fellow supporters gathered to see what sort of monstrosity Jarry had created. Many of them had already read the play [...]. What was a little unnerving though was Jarry's curtain speech. Rachilde had tried to talk him out of this, but he insisted following the fashion of the day. In front of the curtain a table was placed. Jarry appeared and walked over to it like an android. He was dressed in a "baggy black suit" and his hair was "plastered down like Bonaparte." Beaumont describes him as looking like a "circus clown in a white shirt with a huge starched front and an enormous bow-tie" and his face white from fear. The speech was "delivered in the clipped tones of Ubu." Jarry thanked many of the critics in the audience and followed with what I believe to be quintessential pataphysics.

[...] He then made a number of apologies as to the final state of the production. He claimed there was not enough time for rehearsal, and that this had resulted in certain cuts to the script―including "several passages indispensable to the meaning and equilibrium of the play.". He also admitted that "he and his celebrated scene painters (which included Toulouse-Lautrec, Sérusier, and Bonnard) had been 'up all night' painting last minute props" and that the grand orchestra had to be reduced to a piano and a drum. He ended by saying, "as to the action that is about to begin, it takes place in Poland―that is to say, nowhere." He bowed awkwardly and left.

In front of a restless audience, Ma and Pa Ubu took to the stage. Playing the title role was the "magnificent actor Fermin Gémier, on loan from the Comédie Francaise." Most accounts claim a riot began as soon as Gémier spoke the first word of the play. This is not true of the général. The performance actually went along without any real interruption until Act III, Scene 5. The scene involved the newly crowned King Ubu visiting his former friend Bordure at the Thorn prison. "Here in place of the door of the prison cell, an actor stood with one arm outstretched; Gérmier 'inserted' a key into his hand, made a clicking noise, and turned the arm as if opening a door." "At that moment, the audience, doubtless finding that the joke had gone on long enough, began to shout and storm.". Everything halted, until a furious Gérmier hit upon the idea of dancing a jig. "The audience broke into laughter, and the performance was able to continue, although further periodic interruptions occurred until the end."

The premiere, the following evening, was a different matter indeed. In attendance were "all the leading in the worlds of politics, journalism and letters." Grémier once again spoke the opening 'Merdre!' ('Shite'). The audience immediately burst out with a roar. Grémier was "unable to get a word in edgewise for the next fifteen minutes." It was the first time that someone had spoken such a word on the modern stage. Gémier tried to silence the audience by blowing a tramway horn. Many people left the theatre. A fight broke out in the orchestra pit, while Jarry's supporters yelled, "You wouldn't have understood Shakespeare or Wagner either!" Others shouted, "Can't you see that the author is taking us for a bunch of damned fools?" When Grémier had finally gotten slight control of the audience, he spoke the second word―another 'Merdre!' Needless to say, the audience started to howl once more. They shouted at the stage and at each other. When things quieted down again, the play proceeded as planned. Smaller outbursts continued throughout the performance. In the days that followed, the violent battle for and against Ubu Roi would move on into the Parisian press.

Hey! You got chocolate on my peanut butter!

I can't tell you what an odd feeling it is, performing in a play which is really two plays at once: two very different plays with separate casts, distinct performance styles, and wildly different tones. (All of this is by design, mind you, but theory and practice are not always the same.) It may actually be less odd for me than for my fellow cast members, since my character (who was actually lifted from one play and inserted in the other) is the only one empowered to cross over from one set to the other at will, but even in my case it feels like we Dream Cabbers are doing one show while Joe and Kate just happen to be in another one in another theater next door. Sometimes when rehearsal is over I ask them, "So how did your play go tonight?" (Granted, the feeling is heightened by the fact that some of us in the Cabaret have been collaborating for about 5 years now, while we're just meeting Kate and Joe for the first time.)

Even so, it never ceases to surprise me how smoothly--to me, at least--the two plays work together in spite of/because of their differences, to the point that I think I would feel cheated now if I saw a production of one without the other.

Early in the rehearsal process, when we Ubu-ites started getting used to playing to a camera, I grasped the irony in the situation: "our" play allegedly celebrates/bemoans anarchy and freedom, yet our actual blocking has to be meticulously worked out so it reads onscreen. "Their" play depicts a man with no freedom, yet Joe and Kate have a vastly larger playing space to work with. We measure our movements in term of inches, while they have feet or yards in which to feel ... trapped.

Exit, pursued by a bear

SPOILER ALERT!



Details behind possible show-stealing moment revealed below. View at your own risk.

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Roboteer and director in conference:




A man and his dream:




The creature in all his unvarnished ferocity:

Long live Pere Ubu!

(Note! That's not our set!)

Like a lot of people my age--easing from high school to college as Pistols-era punk rock evolved into post-punk--I first became aware of Ubu Roi through the legendary avant-noise rock of Pere Ubu. The band is still around, more than 30 years later, albeit with an ever-changing lineup, and it's kinda surprising that it took them until 2008 to get around to actually staging Jarry's play.

The production, described here, sounds pretty interesting--and quite far from our own handling of the same material. Visual elements are by the Brothers Quay, and lead singer/songwriter/play adapter David Thomas performs as Pa Ubu himself--the role he was obviously born to play. Here's a sample:



(You can download a free MP3 of the same song here, or buy the whole album shortly.)