Roger Vitrac

Roger Vitrac was born in Pinsac on 17 November 1899, before his family moved to Paris in 1910.{{Cite book|last=Flower|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kd6tAAAAQBAJ&dq=Vitrac+1910+Paris&pg=PA527|title=Historical Dictionary of French Literature|date=2013-01-17|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7945-4|language=en}}^:527 As a young man, he was influenced by the period's theatre and poetry, in particular the works of Lautréamont and Alfred Jarry.^:527 In the late 1920s he married Kitty Cannell, a dancer and actress who performed at the Provincetown Playhouse.{{Cite book|last=Rintoul|first=M. C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFCOc-tW3uMC&dq=roger+vitrac+biography&pg=PA265|title=Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction|date=1993|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-05999-2|language=en}}^:265

In 1919 he published his first collection of poems, Le Faune noir.{{Cite book|last=Matthews|first=J. H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mz7O4pPK6dQC&dq=Roger+Vitrac+enlisted+army&pg=PR8|title=André Breton: Sketch for an Early Portrait|date=1986-01-01|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=978-90-272-1732-5|language=en}} In 1920 he began his obligatory three-year military service.^:527 While serving, he was introduced to Dadaist performances in Paris and became interested in the movement. He even 'took to distributing Dada manifestos in the barracks'.{{Cite journal|last=Auslander|first=Philip|date=1980|title=Surrealism in the Theatre: The Plays of Roger Vitrac|journal=Theatre Journal|volume=32|issue=3|pages=357–369|doi=10.2307/3206891|issn=0192-2882|jstor=3206891}}^:358 He also 'presented a play in Dadaistic character' entitled La Fenêtre Vorace, which has since been lost.^:358 It was during this time that he met Marcel Arland, François Baron, Georges Limbour and René Crevel, and founded the literary revue, Aventure.^:527File:Aventure_n°_1,_nov_1921.djvuIn 1921, Vitrac met André Breton and Louis Aragon at the Café Certa, which was one of the headquarters for Dada, and later Surrealist, activities.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} That same year, he attended the Dadaist Excursion to the Church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre and become formally associated with the Dadaists. He would continue to develop this network as a founding member of the Surrealist movement and one of the signatories of Breton's First Surrealist Manifesto (1924).{{Cite book|last=Leach, Robert, 1942-|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56557941|title=Makers of modern theatre : an introduction|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-203-48786-9|location=London|oclc=56557941}} He was expelled from the movement in 1925 for his pursuit of the theatre, among other infractions.^:527

In 1926, Vitrac founded the Théatre Alfred-Jarry with Robert Aron and Antonin Artaud (who was also expelled from the Surrealist movement). It was here that Vitrac premiered his plays, Les Mystères de l'amour [The Mysteries of Love] (1927), as well as his best known work Victor ou les enfants au pouvoir [Victor, or Power to the Children](1928).{{Cite journal|last=Jannarone|first=Kimberly|date=2005|title=The Theatre before Its Double: Artaud Directs in the Alfred Jarry Theatre|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-survey/article/theatre-before-its-double-artaud-directs-in-the-alfred-jarry-theatre/DB1BAD9072EB64945DE6B40E9EC591EB|journal=Theatre Survey|language=en|volume=46|issue=2|pages=247–273|doi=10.1017/S0040557405000153|s2cid=194096618|issn=1475-4533}}

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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} From 1931, he worked as a journalist while further exploring burlesque style playwriting, which often operated between boulevard comedy and intimate tragedy.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} 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).{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

In January 1937, Vitrac become Secretary General of the newly established Confédération des Syndicats Professionels Française (CSPF), a workers' union that claimed to be 'purely professional' and 'free of any political affiliation.'{{Cite book|last=Kennedy|first=Sean|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t3q6af5GduAC&q=Vitrac|title=Reconciling France Against Democracy: The Croix de Feu and the Parti Social Francais, 1927-1945|date=2007|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-6024-6|language=en}}^:212-213

Vitrac died in Paris on 22 January 1952.^:527

Only after his death did Vitrac reach popular stardom with Jean Anouilh's 1962 production of Victor, or Power to the Children.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} Though it was written after Vitrac was expelled from Surrealist movement, Victor is often viewed as the key masterpiece of surrealist theatre,{{Cite journal|last=Connon|first=Derek F.|date=1994|title=In the Gutter, Looking at the Stars: Dualism in Vitrac's "Victor; ou, Les Enfants au pouvoir"|journal=The Modern Language Review|volume=89|issue=3|pages=595–605|doi=10.2307/3735118|jstor=3735118|issn=0026-7937}}{{Cite book|last=Rapti|first=Vassiliki|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MOEoDAAAQBAJ&dq=Roger+Vitrac:+Un+Reprouv%C3%A9+du+Surr%C3%A9alisme+review&pg=PA3|title=Ludics in Surrealist Theatre and Beyond|date=2016-05-13|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-10309-7|language=en}}^:94

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Category:1899 births

Category:1952 deaths

Category:People from Lot (department)

Category:20th-century French dramatists and playwrights

Category:French surrealist writers

Category:Surrealist dramatists and playwrights

Category:Modernist theatre