Roger Vitrac

Roger Vitrac (French: [vitʁak]; 1899 – 1952) was a French surrealist playwright and poet.

Early life

Roger Vitrac was born in Pinsac on 17 November 1899, before his family moved to Paris in 1910.[1]:527 As a young man, he was influenced by the period's theatre and poetry, in particular the works of Lautréamont and Alfred Jarry.[1]:527 In the late 1920s he married Kitty Cannell, a dancer and actress who performed at the Provincetown Playhouse.[2]:265

Career

In 1919 he published his first collection of poems, Le Faune noir.[3]

Military Service

During his three-year-long military service, he was introduced to Dadaist performances in Paris. He became interested in the movement and 'took to distributing Dada manifestos in the barracks'.[4]:358 He also 'presented a play in Dadaistic character' entitled La Fenêtre Vorace, which has since been lost.[4]:358 It was during this time that he met Marcel Arland, François Baron, Georges Limbour and René Crevel, and founded the literary revue, Aventure.[1]:527

Association with the Dadaists and Surrealists

Vitrac met André Breton and Louis Aragon at Café Certa in 1921, where many Dada activities took place until it became one of the surrealist group's headquarters. In 1921, Vitrac attended the Dadaist Excursion to the Church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre and become formally associated with the Dadaists.[4] Vitrac joined the surrealist movement and contributed to the first few editions of La Révolution Surréaliste, before being expelled from the movement.[1]:527

Theater Alfred Jarry

In 1926, along with Antonin Artaud, who was also expelled from the Surrealist movement, and Robert Aron, they founded the Théatre Alfred-Jarry.[5] It was here that Vitrac was able to stage his first play, The Mysteries of Love (Les Mystères de l'amour, 1927), as well as his best known work Victor, or Power to the Children (Victor ou les enfants au pouvoir) (1928).[5]

Vitrac joined Georges Bataille as one of the signatories of Un Cadavre against Breton and contributed to Documents with articles on "Gaston-Louis Roux" (1929, issue 7), "The Abduction of the Sabines" (1930, issue 6) and a poem, "Humorage to Picasso" (1930, issue 3), dedicated to the artist. From 1931, he worked as a journalist while further exploring burlesque style playwriting, which often operated between boulevard comedy and intimate tragedy. His multi-thematic Coup de Trafalgar (1934) and Les Demoiselles du large (1938) gained as little recognition as his more slapstick plays such as Le Loup-Garou (1939) and Le Sabre de mon père (1951).

Death

Vitrac died in Paris on 22 January 1952.[1]:527

Legacy

Only after his death did Vitrac reach popular stardom status with Jean Anouilh's 1962 production of Victor, or Power to the Children. Though it was written after Vitrac was expelled from Surrealist movement, Victor is often viewed as the key masterpiece of surrealist theatre,[6][7]:94

References
  1. Flower, John (2013-01-17). Historical Dictionary of French Literature. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7945-4.
  2. Rintoul, M. C. (1993). Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-05999-2.
  3. Matthews, J. H. (1986-01-01). André Breton: Sketch for an Early Portrait. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-1732-5.
  4. Auslander, Philip (1980). "Surrealism in the Theatre: The Plays of Roger Vitrac". Theatre Journal. 32 (3): 357–369. doi:10.2307/3206891. ISSN 0192-2882. JSTOR 3206891.
  5. Jannarone, Kimberly (2005). "The Theatre before Its Double: Artaud Directs in the Alfred Jarry Theatre". Theatre Survey. 46 (2): 247–273. doi:10.1017/S0040557405000153. ISSN 1475-4533.
  6. Connon, Derek F. (1994). "In the Gutter, Looking at the Stars: Dualism in Vitrac's "Victor; ou, Les Enfants au pouvoir"". The Modern Language Review. 89 (3): 595–605. doi:10.2307/3735118. ISSN 0026-7937. JSTOR 3735118.
  7. Rapti, Vassiliki (2016-05-13). Ludics in Surrealist Theatre and Beyond. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-10309-7.


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