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