Ubu

1996 to 1997
William Kentridge Ubu And The Truth Commission

The Crocodile’s Mouth

In South Africa at the moment there is a battle between the paper shredders and the photostat machines. For each police general who is shredding documents of his past, there are officers under him who are photocopying them to keep as insurance against future prosecutions.

What has a wide enough mouth to swallow whatever we want to hide? A crocodile’s mouth.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is an enquiry established in 1995 following the settlement negotiated between the outgoing Nationalist Government and the incoming African National Congress (ANC) government of South Africa. The brief of the Commission is to examine human rights abuses that occurred in South Africa during the past thirty-five years. There were two parts to this process. Firstly, victims and survivors come to the Commission to recount their stories of what happened to them or members of their families (many of those involved did not survive, and it is left to mothers and brothers to give evidence).

The second part of the process is the amnesty hearings, in which perpetrators of these abuses may give evidence for what they have done. The incentive to do so? A full confession would bring amnesty and immunity from prosecution or civil procedures for the crimes committed. Therein lies the central irony of the Commission. As people give more and more evidence of the things they have done, they get closer and closer to amnesty, and it becomes more and more intolerable that these people should be given it.

Ubu & the Truth Commission 

William Kentridge and Handspring Puppet Company

Theatre production with actors, puppets, and animation

First performed May 26, 1997 at The Laboratory at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg

Director
William Kentridge

Writer
Jane Taylor

Set Design
Adrian Kohler and William Kentridge

Animation
William Kentridge, with assistance of Tau Qwelane and Susie Gabie

Choreography
Robin Orlin

Music
Warrick Sony, Brendan Jury

Puppet Design and Direction
Adrian Kohler

Costumes
Adrian Kohler, Sue Steele

Lighting Design
Wesley France

Sound Design
Wilbert Schubel

Film Editor
Catherine Meyburgh

Production Coordinator
Basil Jones

Truth and Reconciliation Commission Research
Antjie Krog

Cast
Dawid Minnaar, Busi Zokufa, Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler, Louis Seboko

Production
Handspring Puppet Company with Art Bureau (Munich), Kunstfest (Weimar), Migros Kulturprozent (Switzerland), Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover, The Standard Bank National Arts Festival, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and the Market Theatre Foundation.

Ubu Tells the Truth

1997

animated film made using charcoal drawings on paper, chalk drawings on black paper, documentary photographs and 16mm archival film

35mm film, video transfer, single-channel
8 minutes

Editing
Catherine Meyburgh

Music
Warrick Sony and Brendan Jury

Etchings
Printed by Malcolm Christian at Caversham Press, South Africa

Ubu & the Truth Commission

Theatre production in collaboration with Handspring Puppet Company, with actors, puppets and projections

The Commission itself is theatre, or at any rate, a kind of proto- or ur-theatre. Its hearings are open to the public, as well as being televised and broadcast on the radio. Many of the hearings are presided over by Archbishop Tutu in full purple magnificence. The hearings move from town to town, setting up in a church halls and schools. In each venue the same stage set is created. A table for the witnesses (always at least as high as that of the Commissioners so the witnesses never have to look up to them) and two or three glass booths for the translators. A large banner hangs on the wall behind the commissioners: ‘TRUTH THROUGH RECONCILIATION’. One by one, witnesses come forward and have half an hour to tell their story, to pause, weep, be supported by professional comforters who sit at the table with them. The stories are harrowing, spellbinding. The audience members sit at the edge of their seats listening to every word. This is exemplary civic theatre: a public hearing of private griefs that are absorbed into the body politic as a part of a deeper understanding of how the society arrived at its present position.

Ubu Tells the Truth

single channel video

I was working on a series of etchings based on Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (for an exhibition marking the centenary of the first production of the play in Paris in 1896). These etchings showed a naked man in front of a blackboard. On the blackboard were chalk drawings of Jarry’s Ubu with his pointed head and spiralled belly. After the etchings were done, I wanted to animate the Jarry-esque chalk drawings and then thought that if these were animated, so should the figure in front be. I then asked a choreographer friend if she wanted to do a piece using a dancer in front of a screen, in which a schematic line drawing of Ubu would be moving. Thus the Ubu project was begun. Panic mounted. I realised I could not do both the Ubu and The Waiting Room projects. There were not enough weeks for the animation work. In desperation, I combined the two.

Drawings

Prints

Sculpture

Installations

More

Reading

More projects

Credits: Ubu & the Truth Commission

William Kentridge and Handspring Puppet Company

Theatre production with actors, puppets, and animation

First performed May 26, 1997 at The Laboratory at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg

Director
William Kentridge

Writer
Jane Taylor

Set Design
Adrian Kohler and William Kentridge

Animation
William Kentridge, with assistance of Tau Qwelane and Susie Gabie

Choreography
Robin Orlin

Music
Warrick Sony, Brendan Jury

Puppet Design and Direction
Adrian Kohler

Costumes
Adrian Kohler, Sue Steele

Lighting Design
Wesley France

Sound Design
Wilbert Schubel

Film Editor
Catherine Meyburgh

Production Coordinator
Basil Jones

Truth and Reconciliation Commission Research
Antjie Krog

Cast
Dawid Minnaar, Busi Zokufa, Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler, Louis Seboko

Production
Handspring Puppet Company with Art Bureau (Munich), Kunstfest (Weimar), Migros Kulturprozent (Switzerland), Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover, The Standard Bank National Arts Festival, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and the Market Theatre Foundation.

Ubu & the Truth Commission: Tour history

1997

Weimar, Grahamstown, Avignon, Johannesburg, Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Hannover, Rungis, Ludwigsburg, Nantes, Kristiansand, Neuchâtel, Dijon, Erlangen, Munich

1998

Stellenbosch, New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Antwerp, Stockholm, Göteborg, Copenhagen, Randers, Prague, Rome, Toulouse, Rotterdam, Paris, Reggio Emilia

1999

Saint-Denis, Wiesbaden, Lannion, Saint-Brieuc, Vannes, Quimper, Amiens, London

2014

São Paulo, Bogota, Marseille, Taipei, Edinburgh, Rome, Brussels, Athens

Credits: Ubu Tells the Truth

1997

animated film made using charcoal drawings on paper, chalk drawings on black paper, documentary photographs and 16mm archival film

35mm film, video transfer, single-channel
8 minutes

Editing
Catherine Meyburgh

Music
Warrick Sony and Brendan Jury

Etchings
Printed by Malcolm Christian at Caversham Press, South Africa