Arrabal, Fernando [key], 1932–, French playwright, b. Melilla, Morocco. He studied law in Madrid before moving to Paris in 1954. His plays, which reflect his abhorrence of political repression, bourgeois complacency, and war, are often abstract and savagely ironic, employing sadism or sacrilege to shock the senses. His best known plays in English translation are The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (1967) and And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers (1969). Other works include Oraison (1958), Théatre Bouffe (1978), and The Extravagant Triumph of Jesus Christ, Karl Marx, and William Shakespeare (1982). Arrabal has also written novels, e.g., Baal Babylon (1959, tr. 1961), screenplays, poetry, and nonfiction.
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