"Trial of Ubu" is a satirical play by Simon Stephens, first published in 2012. The author "borrows" the main character of the play from Alfred Jarry's grotesque play "King Ubu", which has become a world classic and has been repeatedly presented in Lithuania. The Trial of Ubu takes place in The Hague, one of the most important United Nations headquarters, the International Court of Justice, where the 21st-century immoral dictator King Ubu stands before an international tribunal to answer for his crimes against humanity and gross human rights abuses. violations of human rights. In his play, the author comments on the absurdity of today's international legal system and raises the question through it - how do we deal with such a blatant criminal today, how to solve the dilemma of legal and moral justice by judging a person who not only openly disobeys existing moral and legal norms think in completely different moral categories?

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Artūras Areima: “Man is naturally selfish and tends to satisfy his instinctive needs, but nevertheless, they emphasize man's tendency to social life. There is a constant tension in man between his social and antisocial sides. Kant called the phenomenon unfriendly friendliness, and Freud described the tension as a constant struggle between Eros and Death's propensity - sadism. I would like to add that we all live in one big prison and we are judging something every moment. Something always becomes more legitimate than ourselves. This is our nature - to defend, to want to be good, to be better. It is the desire to be better, to make something worse, to blame, who is less resistant to the desires of goodness, and in principle seeks to be worse, the worst. Of course, there is also the easiest option: to balance on the stretched rope of the system, because we are trained for this from the cradle - to keep this lobby. But in this way we lose ourselves because we are focused only on the fear of falling down. Then the question arises for me: how can we pursue a good that is abstract and look upwards at someone’s posed pose? Isn’t a brave man who openly despises those balancing on a rope under his sweat? Who said being bad is bad? And hasn’t the verbal language we so worshiped so much turned everything into bigger abstractions when we start talking anymore, but just ceasing non-verbally? Aren't we all like King Ubu who wants to be "something" except that balancing on the rope, and we choose one direction or another that will sooner or later be judged? "

 

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REVIEWS:

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http://www.menufaktura.lt/?m=1199&s=70135

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https://www.delfi.lt/kultura/naujienos/arturo-areimos-teatro-premjera-ubo-teismas

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https://www.ore.lt/2021/09/siek-tiek-apie-ubus-norincius-buti-kazkuo