Alexandru Kirițescu (28 March 1888 – 9 April 1961) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

and

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, best known for his play ' (''The Magpies''), also called ''Cuibul de viespi'' (''The Wasps' Nest'')."Vă mai amintiți de... Alexandru Kirițescu"
''

Adevărul (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Kingd ...

'', 8 June 2010; accessed 16 June 2013. Born in

Pitești Pitești () is a city in Romania, located on the river Argeș (river), Argeș. The capital and largest city of Argeș County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Pitești is situated in th ...

, he attended the Gheorghe Lazăr High School in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, after which he enrolled in the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

's Faculty of Law. He debuted in 1914 with the play ''Invinșii'' and collaborated with various publications, such as ''Rampa'', ''

'', '' Cuvântul'', and ''Gazeta''. In 1929 the play ''Marcel and Marcel'', also called ''Anise or Temptation'', made its debut; together with ''Florentina'' and ''The Magpies'', this play formed Kirițescu's so-called "Bourgeois Trilogy". ''The Magpies'' debuted at the Bulandra Theatre in 1932; directed by , it featured Lucia Sturdza-Bulandra, , and Mania Antonova in the main roles. It was originally played with the title ''The Wasps' Nest'' and, instead of the current Act III, it had only one final scene. The play was repeated at the

National Theatre Bucharest The National Theatre Bucharest () is one of the national theatres of Romania, located in the capital city of Bucharest. Founding It was founded as the ''Teatrul cel Mare din București'' ("Grand Theatre of Bucharest") in 1852, its first director ...

in 1933, under the direction of V. Enescu. Bellu 130222 68

Between 1938 and 1940, he served as Romania's

cultural attaché Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. His plays ''Lăcustele'' (1936), ''Intermezzo'' (1943), and ''The Dictator'' (1945) were played on various stages in Bucharest. He also published translations of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the Grotesque#In literature, grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works "The Nose (Gogol short story), ...

, and

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

. He died in 1961 in Bucharest at age 73 and was buried in the city's Bellu Cemetery.

Notes

1888 births 1964 deaths People from Pitești Gheorghe Lazăr National College (Bucharest) alumni University of Bucharest alumni 20th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Romanian journalists Recipients of the Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic Burials at Bellu Cemetery {{Romania-writer-stub