Pompeu Crehuet (Barcelona, 1881 - Sant Feliu de Guíxols, 1941) was a playwright, journalist, and fiction writer who worked as a lawyer and civil servant, first for the Mancomunitat de Catalunya (Commonwealth of Catalonia) and later, until his death, for the Barcelona Provincial Government. From 1907 to 1913, he was editor of the cultural magazine De tots colors.

With his father’s support, he wrote plays from an early age and, in 1904, one of them, La morta was a resounding success. This work and Claror de posta (1905) belong to the symbolist tradition in theatre, with clear influences from Maurice Maeterlinck. His plays then evolved into bourgeois-style works that were conditioned by the commissions of the theatre impresario, Josep Canals. Notable among these works are La família Romora (1909) and, years later and influenced by Luigi Pirandello, La vall de Josafat (1927).

His last works, La segona joventut, premiered in 1931, and Estàtua de sal (1936), which was published but not performed, date from the 1930s.

In 2020, his great-grandson, the playwright and director Marc Crehuet, revived Pompeu Crehuet’s most significant play, La morta.
 

Web page: Francesc Viñas for AELC.
Photographs: Una Barcelona de conte by Eladi Crehuet.
Translation: Julie Wark.