Alfonso Paso (12 September 1926 – 10 July 1978) was a Spanish dramatist. He wrote over a hundred plays, mainly light comedies, sometimes laced with black humour and tragedy. There were also police dramas and examples of what he called "social theatre". He was known for the well crafted complexity of his plots and for the originality of his situations and characters.

Life

Alfonso Paso Gil was born into a "theatre dynasty" in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

. His father was the Zarzuela playwright and librettist (1878–1950). His mother was the actress Juana Gil. Early on he abandoned a career as an aeronautical engineer and turned to the study of Philosophy and

Literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...

, graduating in 1952 and focusing on American History and Archeology. Later he studied Medicine and Psychiatry, then switching again, this time to journalism. He would continue to work as a journalist until the mid-1970s. He married Evangelina Jardiel, daughter of

Enrique Jardiel Poncela Enrique Jardiel Poncela (15 October 1901 – 18 February 1952) was a Spanish playwright and novelist who wrote mostly humorous works. In 1932-33 and 1934 he was called to Hollywood to help with the Spanish-language versions shot in parallel to ...

(1901–1952). Their children included the actress . Although he often worked as an actor, his more lasting notability results from his work as a writer. He died of

liver cancer Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...

in Madrid on 10 July 1978.

Writing career

His first comedy, "Un tic-tac de reloj" (''"A ricking clock"'') was a one-act play which he wrote in 1946. During his early years as a dramatist he was identified as a promoter of experimental theatre, while other sources refer to an intention to reinvent the genre, with plays such as "Juicio contra un sinvergüenza" (''"Judgment against a rogue"'') and "Los pobrecitos" (''"The poor wretches"''), but during the 1950s and 1960s he deferred to the more conservative tastes of theatre audiences in

Franco's Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

, writing in a more consciously escapist and entertaining style. His success was massive: he became Spain's most prolific dramatists, the author, according to one source, of no fewer than 436 theatrical works. The same source speculates that he may have been one of the first dramatists to make a small fortune. During the 1968 season, he had seven plays running simultaneously in seven different

theatres, each with three performances daily. His commercial success owed much to the fact that many of his plays were adapted for the cinema. Some years after his death his works were still attracting great interest, and were well received outside Spain, notably in

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, the

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and

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. His works were translated into more than 24 languages, including Italian, French, Portuguese, English, German and Arabic. He was the first Spanish author to have a live play produced on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

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, the work in question being ''El canto de la cigarra'' (English: ''Song of the Grasshopper''). A particular admirer was the actor-director , who found large audiences for his work on Chilean and Peruvian television during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Output

Theatre (some better known works)

* '' Juicio contra un sinvergüenza'' (1952) * '' Una bomba llamada Abelardo'' (1953) * '' Los pobrecitos'' (1957) * '' El cielo dentro de casa'' (1957) * '' Usted puede ser un asesino'' (1958, llevada al cine) * '' Papá se enfada por todo'' (1959) * '' No hay novedad, Doña Adela'' (1959) * '' La boda de la chica'' (1960) * '' Pregunta por Julio César'' (1960) * '' Cuidado con las personas formales'' (1960) * '' Cosas de papá y mamá'' (1960) * '' Cuatro y Ernesto'' (1960) * '' Sentencia de muerte'' (1960) * '' Una tal Dulcinea'' (1961) * ''

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'' (1961) * '' Aurelia y sus hombres'' (1961, Premio Nacional de Teatro) * ''

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'' (1962) * '' Al final de la cuerda'' (1962) * '' De profesión, sospechoso'' (1962) * '' Las que tienen que servir'' (1962) * '' El mejor mozo de España'' (1962) * '' Sosteniendo el tipo'' (1962) * '' El canto de la cigarra'' (1963) * '' Las mujeres los prefieren pachuchos'' (1963) * '' La corbata'', (1963) * '' Los Palomos'' (1964, llevada al cine) * '' Carmen tomó la roja'', (1964) * '' La oficina'' (1965) * '' Educando a un idiota'' (1965) * '' Enseñar a un sinvergüenza'' (1966) * '' ¡Estos chicos de ahora!'' (1967) * '' Atrapar a un asesino'' (1968) * '' ¡Cómo está el servicio!'' (1968) * '' Viuda ella, viudo él'' (1968) * '' Una monja'' (1968) * '' El armario'' (1969) * '' Nerón-Paso'' (1969) * '' Tú me acostumbraste'' (1970)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paso, Alfonso People from Madrid 20th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights Spanish television writers Male television writers 1926 births 1978 deaths Spanish male writers 20th-century screenwriters