A stunning, controversial work that immediately outraged audiences with its scatological references during the 1896 premiere, the farce satirizes the tendency of the successful bourgeois to abuse his authority and become irresponsibly complacent. Championed by Dadaists and Surrealists as the first absurdist drama, Ubu Roi features a main character that is cruel, gluttonous, and grotesque--the author's metaphor for modern man.