The text analyzes the comic-grotesque nature of the work that
inaugurated all of modern avant-garde theatre: Alfred Jarry’s
Ubu Roi. The main character, Ubu, a tyrant who is both atrocious
and funny at the same time, can be considered the grotesque version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The peculiar comicality of Ubu
Roi can be understood by recalling the category of the grotesque
defined by Victor Hugo and the satanic and grotesque laughter of
which Baudelaire spoke. Furthermore, the playful component of
this text evokes the student spirit described in Goethe’s Faust.
Jarry decided to depict his character as an abnormal puppet,
with a pear-shaped face and a large belly marked by a spiral. In
this case, it is necessary to remember the reflections on the grotesqueness of images made by ancient treatise writers such as
Milizia and Quatremère, as well as the idea of the comic according to Bergson. The playful spirit that runs through Ubu Roi is
also highlighted by Anton Giulio Bragaglia, who saw this theatrical text as a rebellion of the spirit resolved with the classic
Neapolitan vernacchio.
