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Gaberbocchus Press published the first English edition of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi in 1951, translated by Barbara Wright. She wrote the text directly onto litho plates and Franciszka Themerson drew 204 illustrations over this text. The book was printed in black on yellow paper. A year later, for a dramatized reading at the ICA in London, she made papier-mâché masks.

In 1963-64, she designed Michael Meschke's production of Kung Ubu for the Marionetteatern in Stockholm. She continued her involvement with the figure of Ubu Roi through drawings, and finally in 1967-70, she devised her own comic strip version of UBU consisting of 90 one-metre-long drawings. It was later published in Holland and Japan.

The grotesque sense of the absurd in Jarry's satire became an inspiration for much of her later art.

She was awarded the gold medal at the 1966 Triennale of Theatre Design, Novi Sad, and in 1976 elected honorary member of Union Internationale de la Marionette for her services to theatre.

UBU comic, 1969