On December 10, 1896, the actor Firmin Gémier stood in the center of the stage at the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre in Paris wearing a pear-shaped mask of dog hide and a ripe gut made of cardboard. After a moment's silence, he uttered the first line of the play: "Merde!" A riot, which included André Gide, William Butler Yeats, Rémy de Gourmont and Arthur Symons, ensued for twenty minutes. That December night marked two premiers: Alfred Jarry's play UBU ROI and the modern, anti-realistic theater.
