The best element of the show was the acting. The transformations between chic Parisian dinner guests and the dark, bestial characters of Ubu's world were especially stunning, but throughout the play the whole cast delivered engaging, funny performances. Camille Cayol as Ma Ubu was especially magnetic, managing to foster some real affection from the audience, despite her grotesque character and the language barrier.
While the play often made you think "ah - how clever. I see by showing me a close up of some raw meat they are juxtaposing the perceived perfection of the middle classes with the filth at its core" there wasn't really any point that made you feel anything. You end up not only not caring if everyone on stage dies, but actually wishing they'd hurry up about it so that you can sneak off to the pub. Of course, Jarry wanted his play to be alienating, and he wanted it to be stupid, and childish. But this play is written over a hundred years ago, performed in French and surrealist in nature anyway. I could have done with a bit more spectacle to counteract the massive triple shot of alienation.Another problem was that, for a telling that's main virtue is cleverness, the conceit never quite made sense. The plots of the two worlds do not tie together, when they so easily could, and the real world counterparts of the grotesque characters are blameless, and do nothing. It's hard to get behind an attack on the hypocrisy of a perfectly nice group of friends, innocently enjoying a meal. Why weren't they bankers, or politicians, or... something? Without a reason to keep it going, the initially interesting conceit of the show ultimately failed to satisfy.