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".
In 1962, Arrabal co-founded the Panic Movement with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roland Topor, inspired by the god Pan. He was elected Transcendent Satrap of the Collège de Pataphysique in 1990. Forty other Transcendent Satraps have been elected over the past half-century, including Marcel Duchamp, Eugène Ionesco, Man Ray, Boris Vian, Dario Fo, Umberto Eco, and Jean Baudrillard. Arrabal spent three years as a member of André Breton's surrealist group and was a friend of Andy Warhol and Tristan Tzara.
Writer and critic Javier Villan wrote of Arrabal:
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 (1947–1976) 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.
In 1954, Arrabal hitchhiked to Paris to attend a performance of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children given by the touring Berliner Ensemble. Later that year, in Madrid, he met Luce Moreau, who became his wife. In 1955, he was awarded a three-month scholarship to study in Paris, during which time he lived at the Colegio de España at the Cité Universitaire. While in Paris he suffered a serious relapse of tuberculosis. He considered this disease to be a "lucky mishap" that allowed him to move permanently to his "veritable homeland, that of Kundera and Vives, Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Picasso: exile." In 1976 he appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's New York film Underground and Friends.
Politics
Arrabal had been known for being anti-Francoist and anti-monarchist and interested in anarchist trends in cultural production.Javier Villán, El Mundo May 18, 2010, Lo de Arrabal es algo muy serio. 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.
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.
In 2001, he was nominated for the Premio Cervantes by Nobel Prize in Literature winner Camilo José Cela and José Hierro. He was reportedly a finalist for the Nobel Prize in 2005 due to the solicitation of several institutions and individuals. On July 14, 2005, he was named to France's Légion d'honneur. In 2007, he was awarded a doctorate of letters Honoris Causa by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.
His other awards and recognition include:
2025: Order of Isabella the Catholic, June 18th, 2025Europa Press Europa Press 2019: Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise, March 1, 2019BOE-A-2019-3006 Spanish Official Journal 2010: Premier Prix International Théâtre du Millénaire 2008: Hijo adoptivo de Ciudad Rodrigo (Spain) Ciudadano de honor, Erlanger (Germany) Fronteira do Pensamento with Bob Wilson, Wim Wenders, Philip Glass, and Bernard Henri Levy (Porto Alegre, Brazil) 2007: Prix Spinoza (Festival Teranova) Doctorate of letters Honoris Causa (Thessaloniki, Greece) Max de Honor, Teatro (Spain) Prix Pasolini, cinéma (París) 2006: Gran Prix d'Interprétation (Festival de Quend, film: Avida) Citoyen d'honneur de Spa (Belgium) Clés de la ville de Fontenay (France) 2005: French Legion of Honor, July 14, 2005 Checa Association of Film Directors Prize, René Char Gold Medal, Avignon Festival 2004 First Panic Award, International Book Fair (Brussels) Francisco de Vitoria Prize (Puerto Rico) Wittgenstein Prize (University of Murcia, Spain) 2003 National Dramatic Literature Award (Spain)Spanish Ministry of Culture Gold Medal of San Fando (Buenos Aires) 2002: Gold Medal of the City of Avignon 2001: Premio Nacional de Teatro (Spain) 2000: National Prize for Literature (Spain) 1999: Alessandro Manzoni Poetry Prize (Italy) 1998: Prize of the Society of Authors (France) 1995: Officer of Arts and Letters (France) 1993: Theatre Prize of the Académie française 1990: elected to honorary title of Transcendent Satrape of the Collège de 'Pataphysique; group founded in 1948 in homage to French author Alfred Jarry, has named previous Transcendent Satrapes including: Camilo José Cela, René Clair, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, M. C. Escher, Eugène Ionesco, Michel Leiris, Man Ray, The Marx Brothers, Joan Miró, Jacques Prévert, Raymond Queneau, and Boris Vian; after Arrabal received this title, other Transcendent Satrapes have been named, including: Roland Topor, Umberto Eco, and Dario Fo 1986: Fine Arts Gold Medal of the Ministry of Culture (Spain) 1983: Chevalier of Arts and Letters (France) 1982: Nadal Prize for La torre herida por el rayo 1976: Obie Award for Theater (New York) 1965 Lugné-Poë Theatre Prize (France) 1959: Ford Foundation Award with Italo Calvino, Hugo Claus, Charles Tomlinson, Günter Grass, and Robert Pinget (New York)
Selected works
Feature-length films Arrabal has written and directed seven feature-length films, and has been awarded the Premio Pier Paolo Pasolini for his contributions to cinema.
1971: Viva la muerte; co-produced by Isabel-Films (Paris) and S.A.T.P.E.C. (Tunis); starring Nuria Espert, Ivan Henriques, and Anouk Ferjac 1973: J'irai comme un cheval fou; produced by Société Générale de Production – Babylone Films; starring Emmanuelle Riva, Hachemi Marzouk, and George Shannon 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-disc box 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 1990: Échecs et Mythe; produced by Antenne 2; starring Joël Lautier, Roland Topor, Julie Delpy, and Gabriel Matzneff 1991: New York City!; produced by Antenne 2; starring Tom O'Horgan, Melvin Van Peebles, and Tom Bishop
Operas