born Aug. 11, 1932, Melilla, Spanish Morocco
Spanish French Absurdist playwright, novelist, and filmmaker.
He turned to writing in the 1950s, and in 1955 he began studying drama in Paris, where he remained. His early plays, in particular Picnic on the Battlefield , brought him to the attention of the French avant-garde. After the mid 1960s his plays evolved into what he termed Théâtre Panique ("Panic Theater"); typical of this period is And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers . His dramatic and fictional world is often violent, cruel, and pornographic.