René de Obaldia

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René de Obaldia (b. October 22, 1918 in Hong Kong) is a French playwright and poet. He was elected to the Académie française June 24, 1999.

He grew up in Paris, studying at the lycée Condorcet, before he was mobilised for the army in 1940. Inprisoned, he was sent to the stalag VIII C (in Sagan). He was then sent to the lighter making area in Kransdyhernfurt on the 26th of June 1940, then to a commando at Auras-sur-Oder to clear a forest. Even in the worse moments, he kept his special sense of humour. Therefore, when the vicar of Auras, suspected of collaboration with the ennemy, was arrested, he asked his companions of misfortune why the Germans did not also stop the man of the speaking clock “at the third ring, it will be exactly…” He was repatriated in 1944. He started his career thanks to Jacques Vilar, in 1960, who prensented a the Théâtre national populaire his first big play “Génousie”.

Then, with André Barsacq, who created at the Théatre de l’Atelier, Le Satyre de la Villette. This comedy places him beside his forefathers Jacques Audiberti, Ionesco, Beckett. He has been, for more than fifty years, one of the French playwrights the most played on the planet, and one of with the most international fame (translated into 28 languages).

What strikes us in his plays, is an amazing ease of writing. Obaldias’s plays always take place in a framework of the present times, and about modern subjects. The comical valor of his texts is obvious. For example, in La Génousie, Obaldia replaces general speech, French, by Genousian, the language of fantasy, dreams, and love.

[edit] Bibliography

1949 Midi, poème
1952 Les Richesses naturelles, récits-éclairs (Grasset)
1955 Tamerlan des cœurs, roman (Grasset)
1956 Fugue à Waterloo, récit (Grasset)
1956 Le Graf Zeppelin ou La passion d’Émile, récit
1959 Le Centenaire, roman (Grasset)
1960 Génousie (T.N.P.) (Grasset)
1961 Impromptus à loisir (Théâtre de Poche Montparnasse) (Grasset)
1962 Le Damné (Prix Italia) (Grasset)
1963 Le Satyre de la Villette (Théâtre de l’Atelier) (Grasset)
1964 Les larmes de l’aveugle (Grasset)
1964 Le Général inconnu (Théâtre de Lutèce) (Grasset)
1965 Du vent dans les branches de sassafras (Théâtre Gramont) (Grasset)
1965 Le Cosmonaute agricole (Biennale de Paris) (Grasset)
1966 L’Air du large (Studio des Champs-Élysées) (Grasset)
1966 Obaldia, «Humour secret », choix de textes. Préface by Jean-Louis Bory
1967 Urbi et orbi
1968 La Rue Obaldia (Théâtre de la Gaîté Montparnasse)
1968 … Et la fin était le bang (Théâtre des Célestins à Lyon)
1969 Les Innocentines, poèmes pour enfants et quelques adultes (Grasset)
1971 La Baby-sitter (théâtre de l’Œuvre) (Grasset)
1971 Deux femmes pour un fantôme (théâtre de l’Œuvre) (Grasset)
1971 Le Banquet des méduses (Grasset)
1972 Petite suite poétique résolument optimiste (Comédie-Française)
1973 Underground établissement : Le Damné et Classe Terminale (Théâtre Saint-Roch, Chapelle du Calvaire)
1975 Monsieur Klebs et Rosalie (Théâtre de l’Œuvre) (Grasset)
1977 Spectacle Obaldia : Le Grand Vizir et Le Cosmonaute agricole (Théâtre du Marais)
1977 Grasse matinée (Grasset)
1979 Le Banquet des méduses (Théâtre Montansier, Versailles)
1980 Soirée René de Obaldia (Centre Georges Pompidou)
1980 L’obscur procès de Monsieur Ménard
1980 Les Bons Bourgeois (Théâtre Hébertot) (Grasset)
1981 Visages d’Obaldia (T.F.1)
1984 La Jument du capitaine (Le Cherche-Midi)
1986 Endives et miséricorde (Théâtre Mouffetard)
1991 Grasse matinée (Théâtre du Marais)
1991 Les Larmes de l’aveugle, Richesses naturelles (Théâtre Espace Acteur)
1993 Les Innocentines (Théâtre 14) (Grasset)
1993 Exobiographie, mémoires (Grasset)
1996 Sur le ventre des veuves, recueil de poèmes
1996 Soirée Obaldia - Théâtre Molière
1999 Obaldiableries : Rappening, Pour ses beaux yeux, Entre chienne et loup (Théâtre 14)
2001 Théâtre complet. Réunion en un seul volume des pièces précitées. (Grasset)