Theatre Program for the David Hockney-Designed Production of Ubu Roi

Alfred Jarry, David Hockney (design), et al. MAX WALL IN UBU ROI. Theatre program for the production at The Royal Court Theatre, London, [1966]. Stapled illustrated wraps. (Small stains, light scuffs, and minor creasing to wraps; interior with small edge stain and very light grime on final page, otherwise extremely clean.)

Lot also includes Alfred Jarry; Barbara Wright, trans. UBU ROI: DRAMA IN 5 ACTS. A New Directions Paperbook. Fifth printing. (Writing on the cover, tears and small loss to back cover also impacting final leaf, otherwise typical light wear from use.)

Program 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.; Book 6 7/8 x 5 3/8 in.

Private Collection, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

According to the David Hockney Foundation: "For a revival of Ubu Roi at London's Royal Court Theatre, Hockney does his first theater design work. He is reluctant to do it but enticed by the instructions of the absurdist playwright Alfred Jarry, which forbid traditional scenery."

"In paintings before that I had been interested in what you might call theatrical devices, and I thought that in the theater, the home of theatrical devices, they would be contradictory .... So I agreed to do it without knowing how to do it. I took each scene and made a drawing of it. The concept was basically very simple: little painted backdrops, much smaller than the stage. They were like big paintings, about twelve feet by eight feet. They dropped down with big ropes on them like a joke toy theater." - David Hockney
(https://www.thedavidhockneyfoundation.org/chronology/1966)