Jean-Claude Grumberg's Holocaust Plays: Presenting the Jewish Experience

Abstract

Now in his fifties, Jean-Claude Grumberg can be considered one of France's foremost dramatists. Having made his mark early on with Rue (1968), Amorphe d' Ottenberg (1971) and Demain unefenetre sur rue ... (1974), he rapidly acquired a reputation for being able to treat dark, violent subjects with a touch of humour, and since these beginnings he has continued to meet with critical acclaim and considerable public recognition. The winner of the critics' prize for Dreyfus (1974), he went on to win the coveted Moliere prize for best new play for L'Atelier (1979) and again for Zone libre (1991). These are the works Ihat form his trilogy of Holocaust plays, and it is a rare distinction for a dramatist who writes on this difficult and disturbing question in France to attract such accolades. His work has given further exposure to a subject that is a part of the consciousness of OUT times, and one of the merits of his achievement is that it creates another, living tribute to those who were the victims. The national theatres of France, including the Comedie Française, the Odeon, the Theatre de la Colline and the Criee at Marseilles, now perform his works, and they attract some of France's most talented directors: Jacques Rosner, Jacques Lassalle and Gildas Bourdet. Research in the universities is beginning to take his output into account; David Bradby gives some interesting insights into the structure of his work; Michel Corvin and Marie-Alice de Beaumarchais both accord him a prominent place in their writing on French theatre; Robert Skloot more recently gave a brief consideration to L' Atelier in his study of theatre of the Holocaust. This play is currently a text prescribed for the baccalaureat program in France, an indication that critical interest in the playwright's work is growing.

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