Adamov, Arthur

Adamov, Arthur (1908–70), Russian-born French dramatist. His first play, La Parodie, was not produced until 1952, though written in 1947. Two later plays, La Grande et la petite manœuvre and L'Invasion, had been performed in 1950. His early work, including Le Professeur Taranne and Tous contre tous (both 1953), had much in common with the Theatre of the Absurd, as had Ping-Pong (1955), a satire on the world of commerce and politics. With Paolo Paoli, an exposure of the corruptions of the French social scene which was first produced by Planchon at Lyons in 1957, Adamov moved towards the epic theatre of Brecht, whose influence was even more evident in Le Printemps '71 (1961), dealing with the Paris Commune of 1871, and La Politique des restes (1963). Two of Adamov's later works were inspired by Gorky—Les Petits Bourgeois (1959) and Les Âmes mortes (1960).