Alfred Jarry first presented his absurdist, expletive-filled play King Ubu in Paris in 1896, and instantly ignited a literary scandal. King Ubu not only influenced artistic movements such as Dada, Surrealism, and the Absurd Theater of Jean Genet and Samuel Beckett, but it anticipated, with frightening perspicacity, the catastrophic political madness of the 21st century. Written in a rudimentary and comically nonsensical way-it even incorporates some of Jarry's high-school stunts-the play lends itself to updating with contemporary slang and subjects. About 10 years ago, Rainer Ganahl rewrote Jarry's text as Ubu Lenin, with Vladimir Lenin and his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya as the protagonists. Now, the advent of Donald Trump has presented an even more appropriately divisive, madcap, narcissistic stand-in for King Ubu. Ganahl's Ubu Trump will take place in Harlem, a neighborhood filled with many of the very people Trump supporters would like to see deported, banned, or put behind "big, beautiful walls." Just like Jarry's King Ubu, Trump and his cronies run their administration like a mafia family business, with barely fig-leafed personal enrichment schemes layered upon corrupt policies and, in all likelihood, treason. In Ubu Trump, the father, King Ubu, has been replaced with Ubu Trump, while Mama Ubu is reincarnated as Ubu Ivanka. Originally set in Poland and Russia, the new play blends Warsaw with Washington, and Poland with the USA, alluding to Trump's special dealings with Putin and the new right-wing government in Poland. The actors perform behind three simple graphic panels based on Jarry's own sketches of King Ubu, and overlapped with renderings of the ruling Trump family: Donald, Ivanka, Jared, and their Russian guest, Putin. This theatrical performance will be staged at a morgue in Harlem, the neighborhood where Ganahl has been living for more than 20 years.

Drama. Translated and Entirely Updated by Rosanna Hildyard. Though ostensibly Surrealist, Alfred Jarry's 1888 play Ubu Roi bears disconcertingly close resemblance to America in 2017. This new version, which brings Ubu to the USA, is a bombastic, irreverent romp through the misadventures of the titular usurper of the White House, with a sharp eye for materialism and political infighting. Slightly Shakespearean, mostly scatological; the ridiculous UBU TRUMP is more than a spoof. This satirical translation-palimpsest forms a terrifyingly relevant comment on our world turned upside down.

Written in two acts, TRUMPED: An Alternative Musical is a satirical play parodying the 2016 Presidential Election Campaign of Donald Trump and his subsequent first year in office as President of the United States. Opening on the final day of the July 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, OH, act I tells the alternative story behind the Trump campaign and its journey from outsider to unexpected winner of the electoral college. With the election over and Donald Trump set to be the new President, act II opens the day following election day when both the world and the current President, are still in shock.

Stunning, controversial work that immediately outraged audiences at the 1896 premiere with its scatalogical references, features a cruel, gluttonous, and grotesque main character — the author's metaphor for modern man.

With its impressive variety of theater, Finland is a superpower of performing arts. Finnish theater, however, is presently a hotbed of cultural debate regarding the artistic quality of its performances. This comprehensive overview of contemporary theater explores many of the most contentious questions concerning applied theater, its devised methods, and the corresponding challenges presented to traditional definitions of theater and related arts. Through interviews with new writers and directors, and first-hand accounts of recent performances, this study attempts to define what it means today to say “Finnish theater.” It also addresses issues concerning Finland’s emergence as a cultural player within the European Union and implications for its evolving national identity.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic comes an impassioned critique of America’s retreat from reason We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven science is once more up for debate, and Russian propaganda floods our screens. The wisdom of the crowd has usurped research and expertise, and we are each left clinging to the beliefs that best confirm our biases. How did truth become an endangered species in contemporary America? This decline began decades ago, and in The Death of Truth, former New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani takes a penetrating look at the cultural forces that contributed to this gathering storm. In social media and literature, television, academia, and politics, Kakutani identifies the trends—originating on both the right and the left—that have combined to elevate subjectivity over factuality, science, and common values. And she returns us to the words of the great critics of authoritarianism, writers like George Orwell and Hannah Arendt, whose work is newly and eerily relevant. With remarkable erudition and insight, Kakutani offers a provocative diagnosis of our current condition and points toward a new path for our truth-challenged times.

"Ubu and the Truth Commission" is the full play text of a multi-dimensional theatre piece that tries to make sense of the madness that overtook South Africa during apartheid.