Fernando Arrabal - Youth (1946-1956)

Youth (1946-1956)

In 1947, when his mother ordered him to attend preparatory classes for entrance to the Academia General Militar, Arrabal reacted by playing hooky. As a result, in 1949 he was sent to Tolosa (Guipuzcoa) where he studied business at the Escuela Teórico-Práctica de la Industria y el Comercio del Papel. By 1950, he began to write several plays which have remained unpublished.

In 1951 began work in the paper industry at la Papelera Española. He moved to Valencia where he passed his bachillerato, the first non-compulsory educational option in Spain for those wishing to go on to university. He later moved to Madrid, where he began legal studies. During these years he frequented the venerable cultural institution Ateneo de Madrid as well as poets from the Postismo school, while polishing his early play “Picnic” (then titled “The Soldiers”) and wrote “El triciclo” ( at first titled “Men With a Tricycle.”).

In 1954 he hitchhiked to Paris in order to attend a performance of Brecht’s “Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder” given by the touring Berliner Ensemble. in Madrid later that year he would meet Luce Moreau, who became his wife. In 1955 he was awarded a three months’ scholarship to study in Paris, during which time he lived at the Colegio de España at the Cité Universitaire. At this time he suffered a serious relapse of tuberculosis. He always considered this ailment as a “lucky mishap” which allowed him to move permanently to his “veritable homeland, that of Kundera and Vives, Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Picasso: exile.”