José Triana (4 January 1931 – 4 March 2018) was a Cuban poet and playwright.
Born in Hatuey, Camagüey Province on 4 January 1931, [1] [2] Triana attended the University of Oriente. [3] He moved to Spain in 1954, [4] where he began his career as a playwright. [3] While in Spain, Triana studied at the University of Madrid and theatre with José Franco. [1] Triana later joined the troupe Grupo Didi, and worked as a scenic artist for Teatro Ensayo. [1] Most his early plays were inspired by Greek tragedy. [5] [6] Triana wrote his first play, The Major General Will Speak of Theogony, in 1957, and began work on his best known play Night of the Assassins later that year. [7] After Fidel Castro took power in 1959, Triana returned to Cuba. [3] In 1960, Triana's Medea in the Mirror was produced at the Prometeo Theatre. [7] The following year, Triana joined the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba as a founding member. [8]
In 1965, he was awarded the Casa de las Américas Prize for Night of the Assassins, [1] [7] which he had rewritten earlier that year. [7] The rewritten play won El Gallo of Havana Prize in 1966. [1] [7] International attention resulting from the awards caused supporters of the Cuban Revolution to turn against Triana and his work. [4] [8] He married Chantal Chilhaud-Dumaine (daughter of Jacques Chilhaud-Dumaine , Ambassador of France to Portugal) in 1968. [1] Triana and his wife were exiled to France in 1980. [3] [8] In France, Triana adapted Respectable Women, a novel by Miguel de Carrión , into the play Dialogue for Women, eventually retitled Common Words, an homage to the play Divine Words, written by Ramón del Valle-Inclán. [7] He died on 4 March 2018, in Paris, aged 87. [2] [3]