Arrabal

For Fernando Arrabal
S. E. Gontarski
The catalogue of Samuel Beckett’s library in his Paris flat at the time of his death is in some
regards less revealing than it might be since he tended to discard as much as he could, to
disencumber himself from the burdens of a literary past, say. The principle of selection seems to
have been those works that retain something of a currency for him, an enduring value. In their
catalogue of that library, Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon note that Beckett retained six books by
Fernando Arrabal, all presentation copies. That number is less than surprising given that the two
playwrights had exchanged some 66 letters between 1957, when Arrabal directed the first
production of Fin de partie in Spain as a writer with whom he shared an interest in chess, which
Beckett’s play features, to shortly before Beckett’s death in 1989, but Beckett was quick to
recognize that Arrabal was no mere acolyte. He wrote to his confidant A. J. “Con” Leventhal on
3 February 1959, ‘I think Arrabal is more than a disciple of mine. Of course, he is already
labelled as such here. He is a very young man, and with luck and given a little span (his health is
poor), I am sure he will do important work. His [autobiographical] first novel Baal Babylone is
due very shortly from Julliard’ (Beckett, 2014, 194). By the 17th of the month, Beckett would
attend Arrabal’s reading at Le Théâtre de Poche of ‘Les 2 Boureeaux, Guernica and another’
(Beckett, 2014, 204). Beckett’s prediction was of course spot on in both cases, Arrabal has
indeed been given more than ‘a little span’, and he has made the most of it, creating ‘important
work’. Unlike Beckett, however, he has been not only doggedly and openly political but has been
irrepressibly prolific, publishing over 100 plays, some 14 novels and over 800 poetry collections.
By March 20, Beckett would reported on the reading to his American publisher, Barney Rosset,
‘I went to the Arrabal reading at the Montparnasse Poche [Le Théâtre de Poche], and enjoyed it,
very well presented by Serreau and others, extracts, nothing from the Cimetière [Le Cimetière
des voitures] which I think is probably the best, though Les 2 Bourreaux should play very well
(Beckett, 2016, 194). What amounted to an endorsement by Beckett was significant to Arrabal’s
publication prospects in English, and two of Beckett’s publishers quickly picked up Arrabal, the
collection below becoming something of a best seller in the American theatrical world. John
Calder, Publisher would follow suite in the United Kingdom. The New York Times theatre critic
Mel Gussow, one of Arrabal’s staunchest New York theatre defenders, would finally dub him the
last survivor among the “three avatars of modernism”, Artaud and Brecht among them. When
Arrabal was arrested for blasphemy on the basis of a dedication he inscribe at a book signing in
September of 1967, any number of French theatre luminaries signed a petition of protest.
Beckett sent a letter of support independently to Arrabal’s attorney, and Arrabal has since
reprinted it in whole or in part in any number of publications, including on his web page:
www.arrabal.org (reprinted in whole in Fernandez, 2015, 233). Gussow would further announce
that, ‘Any play by Arrabal is an event [. . .]’, to which we might add further that international
recognition for Arrabal is likewise something of a theatrical event, and his acceptance of the
inaugural International Association of Theatre Leaders Honorary Fellowship is yet another occasion to
celebrate this remarkable and durable artist’s lifetime of creating ‘important work’.
Figure 1: Grove Press anthology of 1969 which has had a profound impact on American
experimental theatre.
References and Further Reading:

Beckett, Samuel (2014). The Letters of Samuel Beckett, 'Volume 3:1957-1965', ed. George Craig,
Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Dan Gunn and Lois More Overbeck, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Gussow, Mel (1996), Conversations with (and about) Beckett, London: Nick Hern Books.
Rodríquez Gago, Antonia (1987), 'Beckett in Spain: Madrid (1955) and Barcelona (1956)', in
Ruby Cohn (ed'), Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot' . London: Macmillan, pp. 45-6..
Francisco Fernandez, Jose (2015). '”Minister of Horses”. Samuel Beckett according to Fernando
Arrabal’. Journal of Beckett Studies 24.2: 223-241.
Van Hulle, Dirk and Mark Nixon (20l3), Samuel Beckett’s Library, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

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