Josep M. Vidal (Barcelona, 1945 – 2010) was a translator, and a scriptwriter, producer and director of television programmes.

He translated a great number of plays, mostly from French but also from English, Spanish and Italian, beginning in 1981 with El somni d'Èdip (Oedipus' Dream) by Franco Passatore and continuing with Els peixos de colors (Coloured Fish) by Jean Anouilh. In 1983 he received Second Prize in the Josep M. de Sagarra Award for his translation of Spartacus (Espàrtac) by the eighteenth-century French playwright Bernard-Joseph Saurin. In 1993 he began to translate the French classics, his titles including Les dones sàvies (The Learned Women) by Molière, for which he won the Josep M. de Sagarra Award in 1993. His other translations of Molière's work include Tartuf o l'impostor (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite, 2000), Don Juan o el festí de pedra (Don Juan or the Feast of Stone, 2001), L'escola de les dones (The School for Wives, 2003), El misantrop (The Misanthrope, 2004) and L'Avar (The Miser, 2005). In addition he translated Pierre Corneille's El Cid; Jean Racine's Iphigenia (Ifigènia), Phaedra (Fedra), Andromaque (Andròmaca) and Berenice; and works by contemporary writers, including Peter Shaffer's Amadeus; Bernard-Marie Koltès' Sallinger; Véronique Olmi's Chaos debout (Caos dempeus – Upright Chaos); Jean Michel Ribes' and Roland Topor's Batailles (Batalles – Battles); and Boris Vian's The Empire Builders (Constructor d'Imperis). Many of his translations, about twenty in all, have not yet been published. He directed plays in L'Ou Nou Teatre and Clip Teatres in the neighbourhood of Sant Andreu (Barcelona): in the former, La meva Ismènia (My Isménie) by Eugène Labiche (1985) and, in the latter La cantant calba (The Bald Soprano) by Eugène Ionesco (2009).

He also created and directed children's television programmes for which he also wrote the scripts, these including Terra d'escudella (Meatball Soup Land, 1976-1979), La cucafera (The Great Big Bug, 1981) and Planeta Imaginari (Imaginary Planet, 1982-84). He also directed Tripijocs (What a Rumpus, 1985), Barri Sèsam (Sesame Street, 1994-2001) and, subsequently, programmes for adults.

Family contact here.



Texts edited by: Miquel Obiols.
Photographs: Family files of Josep M. Vidal.
Translation: Julie Wark.