Surrealist objects Ubu roi Doll made of fabric for the body, terracotta for the hands and lead for the feet Around 1930 H : 27 cm Alfred Jarry, in 1896, caused a sensation and a scandal at the premiere of Ubu Roi . A satirical play, Ubu Roi tells the story of Father Ubu, who is in the service of the King of Poland but who, on the recommendations of his wife, Mother Ubu, betrays and murders him and immediately takes over the throne. From day to day, Father Ubu becomes a real despot and kills all those who oppose him, without any remorse. However, the son of the deceased King of Poland is ready to do anything to avenge his father and regain his place at the head of the country. From the time of the creation of Ubu Roi Jarry wanted to show a comedian whose head is enclosed in a horrible cardboard box. The triangular mask, with only one ear and three large teeth, has two horizontal slits as eyes. This mask is only capable of simple expressions, therefore, according to Jarry, universal and eternal, and by substituting this mask for his head, the actor becomes what Jarry calls the "effigy" of the character. In addition to the transforming mask, Ubu wears a breastplate that imposes stiff puppet-like gestures. Ankylosed, the actor becomes inhuman and monstrous. "The mirliton," Jarry explains, "seems to us the vocal organ that is appropriate to puppet theatre. Ubu Roi appears emblematic of the theatre of the absurd, dear to its author. In this pre-surrealist farce, Jarry brings to a climax all the silliness of the human race, all the greed of the all-powerful. Like Rimbaud with Les Iluminations (1886), Lautréamont with Les Chants de Maldoror (1868), or Gérard de Nerval with Aurélia (1855), Alfred Jarry with his play Ubu Roi quickly became a key element of the Surrealists who made him one of the greatest literary figures ever invented. In the radio interviews André Breton gave to André Parinaud between March and June 1952, tracing the history of Surrealism, the name of Alfred Jarry is mentioned nine times, each time the figures to which the movement claimed to belong are mentioned, Almost always associated with Sade, Lautréamont and Rimbaud, "those who offer the greatest margin of contestation", those who constituted the spiritual heritage of the movement which dominated, in Paris, the literary and artistic life, and even the intellectual life of the first half of the 20th century. The Doll we present today is very different from the original puppets created by Bonnard and the Nabis (image attached). Its stylization brings us closer to the 1930s and the surrealist movement.