Act 1, Scene 1 Summary

This play tells the story of an ambitious but cowardly man's rise to power, and his subsequent fall. Told in an eccentric and idiosyncratic style, its clown-like characters and inventive use of language take it beyond the realm of straightforward narrative theatre and into something that's equal parts surreal nightmare and satirical social commentary.

Conversing in very crude language laced with idiosyncratic curse words and epithets, Ma Ubu berates Pa Ubu for his lack of ambition and struggles to convince him to murder King Wenceslas of Poland and his family so that Pa Ubu can become king. Pa Ubu veers back and forth between sudden spasms of verbal violence and equally sudden spasms of complete cowardice. Finally, he has enough and runs out. Ma Ubu speaks in soliloquy, saying that she thinks she has almost persuaded him, and hopes that soon...