UBU by Robert Wilson

Playful, anarchic and unsettling:
a living collage of puppets, grotesque figures and newspaper-clad performers

Neither a drama production nor a visual art installation, UBU occupies a space between the two—its 2022 premiere taking place not in a theatre, but at a museum in Mallorca. Avant-garde theatre pioneer Robert Wilson drew inspiration from Alfred Jarry’s groundbreaking Ubu Roi while embracing the visual language of Surrealist painter Joan Miró, whose grotesque and playful depictions of Ubu became a recurring motif throughout his career.

UBU steps away from the monumental scale and epic theatrical architecture which Wilson was renowned for, and saw him venture into a more intimate and freewheeling environment. Rather than retelling Jarry’s story, Wilson and his collaborators distilled the irreverent spirit of Ubu Roi into a compact 55-minute performance drive by image, movement and sound.

Unfolding along a runway-like stage, the work is a collage of newspaper-clad performers, puppets, banners, animals and recorded voices that emerge in a succession of vivid tableaux. Miró’s influence is woven throughout: exaggerated forms, mischievous humour and deliberately grotesque imagery evoke both the artist's distinctive visual world and the absurd universe of Ubu Roi.

Together, these fragments form a constellation of scenes exploring power, folly and barbarity. UBU invites audience members to assemble their own meaning from its shifting images and absurd encounters.

Advance Bookings will start at 10am on 7 October 2026