Fernando Arrabal Terán (born August 11, 1932) is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist, and poet. He was born in Melilla and settled in France in 1955. Regarding his nationality, Arrabal describes himself as "desterrado", or "half-expatriate, half-exiled".
Arrabal has directed seven full-length feature films and has published over 100 plays; 14 novels; 800 poetry collections, chapbooks, and artists' books; several essays; and his notorious "Letter to General Franco" during the dictator's lifetime. His complete plays have been published, in multiple languages, in a two-volume edition totaling over two thousand pages. The New York Times' theatre critic Mel Gussow has called Arrabal the last survivor among the "three avatars of modernism".
Arrabal's theatre is a wild, brutal, cacophonous, and joyously provocative world. It is a dramatic carnival in which the carcass of our 'advanced' civilizations is barbecued over the spits of a permanent revolution. He is the artistic heir of Kafka's lucidity and Jarry's humor; in his violence, Arrabal is related to Sade and Artaud. Yet he is doubtless the only writer to have pushed derision as far as he did. Deeply political and merrily playful, both revolutionary and bohemian, his work is the syndrome of our century of barbed wire and Gulags, a manner of finding a reprieve.[1]
Childhood (1932–1946)
Arrabal (Terán is his second family name) was born to Carmen Terán González and painter Fernando Arrabal Ruiz.
On July 17, 1936, when insurrections within the military were staged against the constitutional government of the Second Spanish Republic, launching the Spanish Civil War, Arrabal's father remained faithful to the Republic and was sentenced to death for mutiny. His sentence was later commuted to 30 years' imprisonment. He was transferred between prisons, from Santi Espiritu in Melilla to Monte Hacho in Ceuta, where he attempted suicide, as well as Ciudad Rodrigo and Burgos. On December 4, 1941, he was sent to the Burgos Hospital due to apparent mental disorder. Later research has found that he likely feigned mental order in order to be transferred to a lower security prison. On December 29, 1941, he escaped from the hospital in his pajamas, despite three feet of snow covering the countryside. Despite extensive research, he was never seen again.
About his father, Arrabal has written: "Without trying to compare what is incomparable, when I confront these twilight episodes (and quite often without any logical connection), I often think of that scapegoat, my father. The day on which the Uncivil War began, he was locked up by his 'compassionate companions' in the flag room of the Melilla military barracks. He was meant to think carefully, since he risked a death sentence for mutiny if he did not join them in their insurrection (alzamiento). After an hour, Lieutenant Fernando Arrabal summoned his ex-comrades – already! – to inform them that he had pondered long enough. Today, because of this precedent, must I serve as witness, example, or symbol, as he did, of the most fundamental occurrences? I, who am a mere exile. If I am taken away from my beloved numerics, everything around me leads to over-the-counter confusion and disorder. I have no wish to be a scapegoat like my father, I only ask to die while still living, whenever Pan so wishes."
In 1936, Arrabal's mother returned to Ciudad Rodrigo with her young son, Fernando, and found a job at Burgos, then-capitol of the Nationalists and headquarters of General Franco's government. Fernando was enrolled in a local Catholic school from 1937 until 1940, when the Civil War ended and he moved with his mother to Madrid.
Arrabal was awarded the national prize for gifted children in 1941. He continued his studies at Las Escuelas Pías de San Antón, a church school whose alumni have also included Victor Hugo and Jacinto Benavente y Martínez. Arrabal later studied at another distinguished Madrid school, Colegio Padres Escolapios De Getafe. He was an avid reader and was eager to experience life.
Youth and young adulthood (1936–1946)
In 1947, when his mother ordered him to attend preparatory classes for entrance to the Academia General Militar, Arrabal protested by playing hooky. She subsequently sent him to Tolosa (Gipuzkoa), where he studied business at the Escuela Teórico-Práctica de la Industria y el Comercio del Paper, in 1949. By 1950, he had begun writing several plays, which remain unpublished.
In 1951, Arrabal began working in the paper industry at La Papelera Española. He moved to Valencia and passed his bachillerato, the first non-compulsory educational option in Spain for admission to university. He later moved to Madrid and began legal studies. During these years, he frequented the cultural institution Ateneo de Madrid and heard poets from the Postismo school. He was also finishing his early play Picnic, then titled The Soldiers, and writing El triciclo, at first titled Men with a Tricycle.
Arrabal had been known for being anti-Francoist and anti-monarchist and interested in anarchist trends in cultural production.[2] Arrabal had a complicated relationship with Communism. He had ties with the Communist Party of Spain during his exile, but a rupture seems to have occurred in 1977 due to a conflict with his play The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria being performed in Barcelona with artists reputed to have Communist Party ties.[3]
Awards and recognition
Arrabal was among the more controversial writers of his time, and his work has been recognized internationally. Awards include the Grand Prize for Theatre of the Académie Française, the Premio Mariano de Cavia for journalism, the Nabokov Prize for novels, the Espasa Prize for essays, and the World Theater Prize.
1975: L'arbre de Guernica; produced by C.V.C. Communication, Federico Mueller, and Harry N. Blum; starring Mariangela Melato and Ron Faber
1982: The Emperor of Peru (also released as Odyssey of the Pacific and Treasure Train); produced by Babylone Films; starring Mickey Rooney and Monique Leclerc
1983: Le cimetière des voitures; television film; co-produced by Antenne 2 and Babylone Films; starring Alain Bashung and Juliette Berto
1992: Adieu, Babylone!; produced by Antenne 2 – Cinecim; starring Lélia Fischer and Spike Lee
1998: Jorge Luis Borges: Una vida de poesía; produced by Alphaville – Spirali (Italy); starring Lélia Fischer and Alessandro Atti
In 2005, a 3-discbox set of Arrabal's films was released by Cult Epics with Viva la muerte, I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse, and The Tree of Guernica.
Several of Arrabal's plays have been adapted for film, including Le grand cérémonial, directed by Pierre-Alain Jolivet; El triciclo, directed by Luis Argueta; El ladrón de sueños, directed by Arroyo; Pique-nique, directed by Louis Sénéchal; Guernica, directed by Peter Lilienthal; and Fando y Lis, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
One critic wrote, "Viva la muerte is an absolute masterpiece, one of the most astonishing I have seen in my lifetime" (André Pieyre de Mandiargues). Another, for Rolling Stone, wrote, "Arrabal is ferociously original" (John Parrack). Amos Vogel wrote, in the Village Voice, "An audacious, paroxistic, and artistically successful work". Raymond Léopold Bruckberger wrote, for Le Monde, "I prefer Arrabal to Fellini or Ingmar Bergman... he is to cinema what Rimbaud is to poetry."
Short films
1978: Sang et or; produced by Antenne 2; starring Edgar Rock and Joshua Watsky
Arrabal's opera Faustbal with music by Leonardo Balada premiered at the Teatro Real de Madrid on February 13, 2009, staged by the Comediants of Barcelona. Arrabal wrote of the opera, "Faustbal is a woman who, in the third millennium, is the reincarnation of Alfred Jarry's Doctor Faustroll, a new doctor Faust who asks God and Lucifer for words and prayers so that love and charity might be unified. Nothing can satisfy the hurricane of her scientific curiosity, nor calm the storms of her desires. A genius, very beautiful, and enriched by her transports and transfigurations, she vows a torrid love for her Amazon. She leaps between galaxies while the war to end all civilization rages, and moves through space at supersonic speed. Confronting her, Margarito, supreme leader of the armed forces, dons the armor of brutal, electronic repression. He is madly in love with Faustbal under the sky's cupola. He tries to possess her through the torrent of his tower, employing the services of Mephistopheles himself. Jesús López Cobos, music director of the Teatro Real de Madrid, will conduct the world premiere, which will be sung by sopranos Ana Ibarra and María Rodríguez. The mezzo-soprano Cecilia Diaz will sing the role of the Amazon, while tenors Gerhard Siegel and Eduardo Santamaría will be the two Margaritos, bass Stefano Palatchi will perform the role of God, and baritones Tomas Tomasson and Lauri Vasar will be Mephistopheles."
Four other operas with Arrabal's librettos have been staged, and the author describes them as "always having been as complex, yet suffering from as few complexes, as did Faustbal." They are:
Picknick im Felde, music by Constantinos Stylianou
Guernica, music by Ostfiend Busing
In October 1985, Arrabal made his debut as an opera stage director at the Opéra Royal de Belgique, where he directed Manuel de Falla's La vida breve and Enrique Granados' Goyescas. "Of course," Arrabal commented, "under my direction the onstage chorus was nude, or to be more precise, panically covered with clay."
In 1994, Chamber Made produced the opera of Arrabal'sThe Two Executioners, with libretto by Douglas Horton and music by David Chesworth. The opera ran for two seasons in Melbourne, 1994 and 1996 at the Malthouse Theatre. Australia's The Independent Monthly wrote, "Easily the most impressive and memorable piece of music theatre in 1994."
L'enterrement de la sardine (Julliard, 1961; The Burial of the Sardine, London: Calder and Boyars, 1966; El entierro de la sardina, Barcelona: Destino, 1984)
Fêtes et rites de la confusion (Madrid, Barcelona: Alfaguara, 1966; Riten und Feste der Konfusion, Stuttgart: Joseph Melzer, 1969)
La Tour prends garde (Paris: Grasset, 1983; La torre herida por el rayo, Barcelona: Destino, 1983; Destino libro, 1984; Círculo de Lectores, 1984; A Torre ferida pelo Raio, Lisboa: Inquirito, 1982; Hohe Türme trifft der Blitz, Colonia: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1986; The Tower Struck by Lightning, New York: Viking, 1988)
La Reverdie (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1985)
La piedra iluminada (Barcelona: Destino, 1985; The Compass Stone, tr. Andrew Hurley, New York: Grove Press, 1987)
La vierge rouge (Paris: Acropole, 1986; La virgen roja, Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1987; A Virgen Vermelha, Lisboa: Dom Quixote, 1987; A Virgen Vermelha, Botafogo: Nova Frontera, 1988; Die rote Jungfrau, Göttingen: Steidl, 1990; The Red Virgin, New York, London: Penguin Books, 1993)
La fille de King-Kong (Paris: Acropole, 1988; La hija de King Kong, Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1988)
L' extravagante croisade d'un castrat amoureux (Paris: Ramsay, 1989; La extravagante cruzada de un castrado enamorado, Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1990)
La tueuse du jardin d'hiver (Paris: Écriture, 1994)
Clitoris (2008 poem with 56 translations, including Czech by Milan Kundera)
Poetry
La pierre de la folie (Paris: Julliard, 1963)
Cent sonnets (Saragossa: El Ultimo Parnaso, 1965)
Humbles paradis (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1985)
Liberté couleur de femme ou Adieu Babylone, Poèmes cinématographiques (Mortemart: Rougerie, 1993)
Arrabalesques – Lettres à Julius Baltazar (Mortemart: Rougerie)
Diez poemas pánicos y un cuento (Córdoba: Caja Sur y Rute, 1997)
In 2015, some of Arrabal's poems were adapted with music by the band Seagoat Bones on their etude album Phonèmes.[6]
Plays
Arrabal has published over 100 plays in 19 volumes. His plays include, with translations noted:
1952
Le toit (unpublished)
Le char de foin (unpublished)
La blessure incurable (unpublished)
1958
Oraison (Paris: Julliard) (Plays, Vol. 1: Orison, etc. translated by Barbara Wright, London: Calder and Boyars, 1962; Orazione, etc., Milan: Lerici, 1962)
Les deux bourreaux (Paris: Julliard) (The two executioners translated by Richard Howard, New York: Grove Press, 1960; Plays, Vol. 1: The Two Executioners, etc., translated by Barbara Wright, London: Calder and Boyars, 1962; I due Carnefici, etc., Milan: Lerici, 1962)
Fando et Lis (Paris: Julliard) (Plays, Vol. 1: Fando and Lis, etc. translated by Barbara Wright, London: Calder and Boyars, 1962)
Le cimetière des voitures (Paris: Julliard) (The Automobile Graveyard translated by Richard Howard, New York: Grove Press, 1960; Plays, Vol. 1: The Car Cemetery, etc. translated by Barbara Wright, London: Calder and Boyars, 1962; Automobil Kirkegaarden, Copenhagen: Arena, 1964)
1961
Guernica (Paris: Julliard) (Plays, Vol. 2: Guernica, etc. translated by Barbara Wright, London, Calder and Boyars: 1967)
Le labyrinthe (Paris: Julliard) (Plays, Vol. 2: The Labyrinth, etc. translated by Barbara Wright, London, Calder and Boyars: 1967)
Le tricycle (Paris: Julliard) (Plays, Vol. 2: The Tricycle, etc. translated by Barbara Wright, London: Calder and Boyars, 1967; The Tricycle translated by David Herzberger, Modern International Drama 9.2, 1976, p. 65-91)
Pique-nique en campagne (Paris: Julliard). (Picnic on the Battlefield translated by James Hewitt, Evergreen Review 4.15, 1960, p. 76-90; Pic-nic, etc., Milan: Lerici, 1962; Plays, Vol. 2: Picnic on the Battlefield, etc., translated by Barbara Wright, London: Calder and Boyars, 1967)
La bicyclette du condamné (Paris: Julliard) (Plays, Vol. 2: The Condemned Man's Bicycle, etc. translated by Barbara Wright, London: Calder and Boyars, 1967)
1965
Le grand cérémonial (Paris: Christian Bourgois) (Plays, Vol. 3: The Grand Ceremonial, etc. translated by Jean Benedetti; London: Calder and Boyars, 1970)
Cérémonie pour un noir assassiné (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Cérémonie pour une chèvre et un nuage (Daily Bul)
1966
Le couronnement (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Concert dans un oeuf (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
1967
L'architecte et l'empereur d'Assyrie (Paris: Christian Bourgois) (De Architekt en de Keiser van Assyrië, Amsterdam: Uitgeverij de Bezige Bij, 1969; Plays, Vol. 3: The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria translated by Jean Benedetti, London: Calder and Boyars, 1970; The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria translated by Everard d'Harnoncourt and Adele Shank, New York: Grove Press, 1969; Der Architekt und der Kaiser von Assyrien, Berlin: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1971; O Arquitecto e o Imperador da Assiria, São Paulo: Desta, 1976)
Les amours impossibles (Paris: Christian Bourgois) (Impossible Lovers, etc. translated by Bettina Knapp, The Drama Review 13, 1968, p. 71-86)
Les quatre cubes (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
La communion solennelle (Paris: Christian Bourgois) (First Communion translated by Michel Benedikt in Modern Spanish Theatre, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1968, p. 309–317; Solemn Communion, etc. translated by Bettina Knapp, The Drama Review 13, 1968, p. 71-86; Plays, Vol. 3: The Solemn Communion, etc. translated by John Calder, London: Calder and Boyars, 1970)
Streap-tease de la jalousie (Paris: Christian Bourgois) (Striptease of Jealousy, etc. translated by Bettina Knapp, The Drama Review 13, 1968, p. 71-86)
La jeunesse illustrée (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Dieu est-il devenu fou? (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
1968
Le jardin des délices (Paris: Christian Bourgois) (Garden of Delights translated by Helen Gary Bishop and Tom Bishop, New York: Grove Press, 1974)
Bestialité érotique (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Une tortue nommée Dostoïevski (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Théâtre choisi (4 volumes en japonais) (Tokyo: Shichosha)
1969
...Et ils passèrent des menottes aux fleurs (Paris: Christian Bourgois) (And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers translated by Charles Marowitz, New York: Grove Press, 1973)
L'aurore rouge et noire (Groupuscule de mon coeur; Tous les parfums d'Arabie; Sous les pavés la plage; Les fillettes) (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Le lai de Barrabas (Le couronnement) (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
1970
Happening at the Théâtre Plaisance in Paris in February (Grand-Guignol)
1972
Ars Amandi (opéra "Panique") (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Dieu tenté par les mathématiques (opéra "Panique") (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Le ciel et la merde (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
La grande revue du XXe siècle (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
1975
Jeunes barbares d'aujourd'hui (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
1976
La guerre de mille ans (Bella Ciao) (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Sur le fil ou la ballade du train fantôme (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
1978
La tour de Babel (Oyez Patria mi affliccion) (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
La marche royale (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Une orange sur le mont de Vénus (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
La gloire en images (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Vole-moi un petit milliard (Théâtre Bouffe) (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Le pastaga des loufs ou Ouverture Orang-outan (Théâtre Bouffe) (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Punk et punk et colégram (Théâtre Bouffe) (Paris: Christian Bourgois)
Fando and Lis (1971) directed by Franz Marijnen[8]
Dos Obras de Arrabal (1972) directed by Delfor Peralta[9]
The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (1976) directed by Tom O'Horgan[10]
The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (1977) directed by Tom O'Horgan[11]
Dance/Theater of Richard S. Bach (1984) choreographed by Richard S. Bach[12]
A traveling company from La MaMa also took The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria on tour to Philadelphia,[13] Amsterdam,[14] Venezuela,[15] and Taormina[16] in 1977–1979.
For a more extensive list of productions of Arrabal's plays, see his official website.
Paintings
Arrabal has described himself as a "frustrated painter". He has produced approximately 50 canvases and 100 drawings and collages, which have been exhibited in museums such as the Paris Art Center, Musée de Bayeux, and the Villa San Carlo Borromeo Art Museum in Milan.
His approach to painting involves close collaboration with artists who produce large-format oil paintings based on the detailed sketches he provides.
In 1962, his first painting was chosen for reproduction in the art publication La Brèche: Action Surréaliste Revue by its founding editor, André Breton.
Arrabal has collaborated with sculptor and video artist Christèle Jacob, with whom he has created a dozen videos and photomontage series, including Les artilleurs des échecs et de la littérature (The artillery corps of chess and literature), inspired by a 1909 artwork by Henri Rousseau.
Essays and non-fiction
Carta al General Franco (bilingual Spanish-French edition, Paris: Bourgois, 1972, col. 10–18; Paris: Anonyme Anarchiste Pop, 1971; Buenos Aires: Granica, 1973; Noce: Babilonia, 1976; Barcelona: Actuales, 1978).
Le Panique (Paris: Union Générale d'Edition, 1973).
Sur Fischer: Initiation aux échecs (Monaco: du Rocher, 1974; Fischer, le roi maudit [revised edition], Luxembourg: Phi, 1988).
Carta a los militantes comunistas españoles (Sueño y mentira del eurocomunismo) (bilingual Spanish-French edition, Paris: Bourgois, 1978; Barcelona: Actuales, 1978; Acción directa, 1980).
Les échecs féeriques et libertaires (articles from L'Express) (Monaco: du Rocher, 1980).
Carta a los comunistas españoles y otras cartas (Letters to Franco, to the King, etc.) (Murcia: Godoy, 1981).
Echecs et mythe (Paris: Payot, 1984; Mitos em Xeque, Río de Janeiro: Globo, 1988).
Introducción a Feliciano de Silva (Cátedra, col. Letras Hispánicas, 1986).
El Greco (Steidl, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1991; El Greco, Barcelona: Destino, 1991; El Greco, London: Calder and Boyars; New York: Grove Press – Viking, 1991; El Greco, Milan: Spirali, 1991; El Greco: Le frénétique du spasme, Paris: Flohic, 1991).
Goya / Dalí (Milan: Spirali – Vel; Rome: Studio di Val Cervo, 1992).
Fêtes et défaites sur l'échiquier (Paris: L'Archipel, 1992).
Cartas a Baltazar (versión de F. Torres Monreal, 1993).
Genios y figuras (preface by A. Berenguer, Espasa Calpe, 1993).
Las manazas del Samaritano. Conversaciones con Ionesco (La Vuelta, nº 210, mayo, 1994).
La dudosa luz del día (translated into Spanish from the original French with notes by F. Torres Monreal, Espasa Calpe, 1994).
Carta al Rey de España (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1995).
Un esclave nommé Cervantès (Paris: Plon, 1996; Un esclavo llamado Cervantes, Madrid Espasa Calpe, 1996).
For over thirty years, Arrabal has written a column on chess for the French weekly news magazine L'Express. His columns have included, among many others:
Aranzueque-Arrieta, Arrabal. La perversion et le sacré: L'architecte et l'empereur d'Assyrie (1967), La charge des centaures (1984) (L'Harmattan, 2006). ISBN978-2-296-00189-3
Emili Ennio, Teatro di Arrabal Tristre (Umana, 1973).
Gille, Bernard, Arrabal (Paris: Seghers, 1970).
Glbota, Ante, "Arrabal Espace" (Paris).
Golden, Laura P., "The French and Spanish Aspects in the Prose of Fernando Arrabal" (Rutgers: unpublished diploma thesis).
Hirsch, Erik, Arrabal narrador. Die neueren Romane Fernando Arrabals (Frankfurt: M. Lang, 2007). ISBN978-3-631-56657-2
Kreis, Karl-Wilhelm, Zur Ästhetik des Obszönen: Arrabals Theater und die Repressive Sexualpolitik des Franco-Regimes (Hamburg: Krämer, 1989). ISBN978-3-926952-20-2
Premer-Kayser, Bertie, Das dramatische Werk des Spaniers Fernando Arrabal: Untersuchung der inhaltlichen und formalen Entwicklung, der psychischen und politischen Tendenzen (Frankfurt: Puppen & Masken, 1984). ISBN978-3-922220-25-1
Rabassó, Carlos A., Teatrilogía del vanguardismo dramático : aproximaciones hermenéutico-fenomenológicas al teatro español contemporáneo (Barcelona: Editorial Vosgos, 1993). ISBN978-84-346-0415-5
Raymond-Mundshau, Françoise, Arrabal (col. Classiques du XXème siècle, 1972).
Regio Capello, Il Teatro di F.A. (Roma: Umana, 1967).
Schiffres, Alain, "Entretiens avec Arrabal" (Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1969).
Steen, Maris, "El humor en la obra de F.A." (Madrid: Playor, 1968).
Tallgren, Viveca, El temor al dios Pan: reflexiones sobre la recepción de algunas obras de Fernando Arrabal (Zaragoza: Libros del Innombrable, 2005). ISBN978-84-95399-61-8
Torres Monreal, Francisco, "El cine de Arrabal" (Murcia, 1999).
Torres Moreal, Francisco, "Teatro completo de Fernando Arrabal" (dos volúmenes, 2380 páginas y un cuaderno de fotografias) (Espasa-Calpe, col. Clásicos Castellanos, 1997 y Everest 2009).
Trecca, Simone, La parola, il sogno, la memoria: El laberinto (1956) di Fernando Arrabal (Pisa: ETS, 2005). ISBN978-88-467-1262-2
Centenares de académicos y universitarios (y entre ellos el catedràtico Francisco Torres Monreal) han analizado también los últimos y más productivos años de la creatividad arrabaliana.
