Fernand Crommelynck

Fernand Crommelynck (19 November 1886 – 17 March 1970) was a Belgian dramatist. His work is known for farces in which commonplace weaknesses are developed into monumental obsessions. He was born into a family of actors, the child of a French mother and a Belgian father, and he himself was also an actor. His sons Aldo Crommelynck (1931–2009), Piero (1934–2001), and Milan were renowned master printmakers, who worked with Pablo Picasso and many other major artists of the twentieth century.

In his earliest works Crommelynck already demonstrated the grasp of style and content that in his maturity culminated in works of great poetic force. The dramatic structure in Nous n'irons plus au bois (1906), Le sculpteur de masques (1908) and Le marchand de regrets (1913), was already based on the logical development of an absurd premise. French composer Cecile Paul Simon set Le marchand de regrets to music.

Crommelynck's masterpiece was Le Cocu magnifique (1920), a 'lyrical farce' on the theme of a lover's jealousy. Staged with constructivist sets by Vsevolod Meyerhold – the first of their kind – the theatre play was such a hit that Crommelynck was able to give up acting and devote himself to writing. In Tripes d'or (1926) he satirized the passion for money and the spurious prestige it confers, while in Carine, ou la jeune fille folle de son âme (1929) he contrasted love and sensuality in the story of a chaste young girl who is faithful to her ideals of love to the bitter end.

Both in language and dramatic technique, Crommelynck has been one of the most lyrical and original writers of the 20th century theatre.