AFTER US THE SAVAGE GOD – A New Play by Mike Czuba

Those interested in having a read of this new work for potential production or simply to check it out… Contact dancingmonkeylab@gmail.com

“A play that speaks directly to our current political environment. One part (un)historical biography – one part biting satire on our modern media.”

After Us The Savage God.
Characters(*):
AJ(M): Late 20’s/Early 30’s
Rachilde(F): Early 40’s
UBU(M): Unknown
Herbert(M): 30’s
Ellen(F): 30’s
Narrator(F): ?
UBU’s Conscience(F): ?
Doctor(M): 40’s
Professor Hèbert(M): 50’s

*Three actors – 2 Male, 1 Female
Quadruple casting:
Rachilde/Ellen/Narrator/UBU’s Conscience.
UBU/Herbert/Doctor/Professor Hèbert

**Or… If you can swing it – one actor per role.
***UBU appears in multiple puppet forms in various spots on stage as well as embodied in a ‘fat suit’ by the actor playing Herbert.

Location:
AJ’s small, sparse apartment – Paris – 1902(maybe).
Ellen and Herbert’s apartment – Montreal – 2014.

The history books all suggest Alfred Jarry died from a combination of malnutrition and a super-human consumption of alcohol. After Us The Savage God will offer another hypothesis – Time travel. With his life long interest in science and cycling, Alfred Jarry secretly managed to build a time machine in his decrepit apartment. He used the knowledge acquired in his travels through time to write his avant-guard and at times incomprehensible plays and novels and in the process create a series of unbelievable characters. One of these creations, the beast known as UBU, decided he would like to become real and tormented Jarry for much of his adult life. UBU inserted himself into Jarry’s world so much that the fabric of reality began to tear apart. Was UBU created by Jarry, or was Jarry created by UBU?

The action of the play takes place in the final months of Jarry’s life (but time is beginning to be difficult to measure) as he struggles to finish his Neo-Scientific novel; Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll – Pataphysician. Jarry, traveling in and out of time and losing track of it, must battle his nemesis, his creation, UBU – or is it simply a projection of himself. The supporting cast is made up of Rachilde, a writer in her own right and editor of the Mercure de France. She is struggling to save Jarry from himself, to stop him from (literally) killing himself. UBU’s Conscience (taken from UBU Cuckold), who lives in a suitcase, valiantly tries to give UBU advice that won’t kill Jarry. Also there is Ellen and Herbert, a corrupt and amoral politician and his equally corrupted Lady Macbeth-esque wife from the future (present). These two vile characters represent all that Jarry was trying to change in his own time.

**Warning: Contains Adult language, fluids and depravity.