Jacinto Grau Delgado (1877 – 14 August 1958) was a Spanish writer. Best known for his plays, and his theoretical approach to theater, he also wrote essays, short stories, and criticism.
Life Grau was born in Barcelona. He served as the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Loyalist Spain to Panama during the Spanish Civil War. Following the war he emigrated to Argentina, where he died in exile in 1958.
Career Grau published twenty-five plays over the course of fifty-five years. His most celebrated work is El señor de Pigmalión (1921), which remained relatively unknown in Spain during his lifetime, though it was successful in Europe and Latin America.DÍAZ, JANET WINECOFF, 'Jacinto Grau and His Concept of the Theater', in Revista de Estudios Hispánicos; University, Alabama Vol. 5, Iss. 2, (May 1, 1971): 203. Grau has stated that he writes plays 'with the greatest intensity possible within the limits of classical harmony'.:23-24
His work is 'anti-realistic', and heavily influenced by George Bernard Shaw, as well as Henrik Ibsen, Jean Anouihl and Buero Vallejo.:269-70 His contemporary critics 'universally' identified his theatre as avant-garde, though Grau 'scorned avant-garde theatre'. Modern scholars have identified him as a 'psychological idealist'.:23
He was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949.
Plays PlayYear PublishedYear PremieredLocation PremieredEl Conde Alarcos1917El hijo pródigo19181918El Mismo daño1921El señor de Pigmalión19211923 Charles Dullin's L'Atelier (Paris):135La Casa del Diablo1933En IldariaEntre LlamasEl Caballero Varona
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