Cutting Ball Theatre Continues 15th Season with Jarry's Parody of Macbeth UBU ROI, 1/24-2/23

Cutting Ball Theater continues its 15th season with Alfred Jarry's UBU ROI in a new translation by Rob Melrose. When UBU ROI premiered in Paris on December 10, 1896, the audience broke into a riot at the utterance of its first word. Jarry's parody of Shakespeare's Macbeth defies theatrical tradition through its scatological language and disregard for audience expectations, replacing Shakespeare's tragic hero with a greedy, sadistic, obscene ogre who becomes the king of Poland by force and through the debasement of his people. UBU ROI retains its relevance and may bring to mind the fall from grace of many a contemporary political leader corrupted by power, from Elliot Spitzer to Dominque Strauss-Kahn.

Russian director Yury Urnov (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company) helms this irreverent take on world leaders that ushered in a century of avant-garde drama. UBU ROI was developed as part of the 2013 edition of RISK IS THIS... The Cutting Ball New Experimental Plays Festival.

Co-founded in 1999 by theater artists Rob Melrose and Paige Rogers, Cutting Ball Theater presents avant-garde works of the past, present, and future by re-envisioning classics, exploring seminal avant-garde texts, and developing new experimental plays. The company has commissioned, developed, and produced new experimental plays, and has partnered with Playwrights Foundation, and the Magic Theatre/Z Space New Plays Initiative to commission new experimental works. In addition to producing West Coast Premieres and re-imaging various classics, Cutting Ball Theater has produced nine World Premieres and seven World Premiere translations. Cutting Ball received the 2008 San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie award for outstanding talent in the performing arts, and was voted "Best Theater Company" in the 2010 San Francisco Bay Guardian Best of the Bay issue. The company also earned the Best of SF award in 2006 and "Best Experimental Theater Company" in 2012 from SF Weekly, and was selected by San Francisco magazine as Best Classic Theater in 2007. Cutting Ball Theater was featured in the February 2010 and 2012 issues of American TheatreMagazine. In 2012, Cutting Ball was awarded a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a three-year residency for resident playwright Andrew Saito.

DATES:

Previews: January 24, 25, 8pm; January 26, 5pm

Opens: January 30 (Press opening: Jan. 30, 7:30pm; Gala opening: Jan. 31, 8pm)

Closes: February 23, 2014

All performances Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday-Saturday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 5pm

TICKETS:

For season membership, single tickets ($10-50), and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 415-525-1205; group discounts available. Pay What You Can tickets are available to neighborhood residents for all productions. Free student walk-up tickets are available to students with valid student ID.