André Roussin

André Roussin (22 January 1911 – 3 November 1987) was a French playwright. Born in Marseille, he was elected to the Académie française on 12 April 1973.

Biography

Early life and education Born on 119 rue Paradis in Marseille, he was raised in Saint-Barnabé in a family belonging to the upper-middle class of Marseille: his father, Joseph-André Honoré Louis Roussin (1877-1932), was an insurer, his mother, Félicité-Louise-Suzanne Gardair (1884-1976), was one of six daughters of a powerful Marseille industrialist who inspired the works Le Tombeau d'Achille and La Sainte Famille.

His father encouraged him to study law after his baccalauréat even though he knew that that did not fit with his son's aspirations; 'My son has a dual ambition; to be the worst in class and to become Napoleon. As to the first ambition I think that he won't have any issue, as to the second, I'm not sure I'll live to see his coronation'. Interested in the arts (he painted and had played violin for six years), André Roussin showed a taste for theatre at an early age, which earned him the nickname 'Pagnolet'. The nickname was given during the performance of Marcel Pagnol's play Topaze in 1928, when he had to retake his baccalauréat. He also began a fruitful collaboration with Elvire Popesco, through which he wrote Nina (1949), La Mamma (1957), La Voyante (1963) et La Locomotive (1967). While they were popular with the public, his subsequent plays were poorly received by a new generation of critics who were followers of André Malraux's policy (the then minister of culture), which was implemented in the 1960s.

The subjects addressed by André Roussin's comedies went beyond the usual boulevard theatre themes to talk about subjects that were rarely touched, about which the author put forward views that were remarkably progressive for his time. Thus, Les Œufs de l'autruche talks abouthomosexuality, and Lorsque l'enfant paraît touches on abortion, which rarely appeared in the theatre of the 1950s. His desire to keep up with changing cultural mores and opinions led him to revise some of his plays by modifying their texts or plots.

Académie française André Roussin was elected to the Académie française on April 1973, in seat 7, replacing Pierre-Henri Simon. The couple had one son, Jean-Marie.