René Kalisky (French:[ʁənekaliski]; born Kaliski, Polish:[kaˈliskʲi]; 20 July 1936 – 6 May 1981) was a Belgian writer of Polish-Jewish descent who is best known for the plays he wrote in the last 12 years of his life.
Kalisky, whose father, Abraham Kaliski was killed at Auschwitz, was himself hidden from harm during World War II.
Kalisky was born in Etterbeek, one of municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium, 20 July 1936. His father Abram Kaliski was born in Łódź on 10 May 1908. His grandparents, Solomon Yitzhak Kaliski and Hadassah Kaliski, had at least 8 children, who all perished during the Holocaust except for one son and one daughter. After his wife's death, fleeing the pogroms, Solomon traveled to South Africa before ending up in Mandatory Palestine at the beginning of the century and died in Tel-Aviv in 1948, aged 80.
Abram emigrated to Belgium where he became a leather merchant and a dancer. Aged 23, in 1932, he met and married Fradla Wach, born in Warsaw on November 15, 1901. They had four children: René who became a writer, Haim who became a historian, cartoonist and author, Sarah who became a painter and Ida. All of the four children were dispatched and remained hidden in separate places during the war. Their parents stayed alone and survived almost until the surrender of the Nazi German forces. Abram nevertheless was caught by the Belgian police while seeking milk for their newborn. After being imprisoned and tortured in the Mechelen transit camp, he reportedly was assassinated in Auschwitz around December 1944, being 36 years old. Fradla gathered her four kids and raised them alone after the war ended. Kalisky was about eight years old when he lost his father. Although their mother was illiterate, he recalled his parents always wished their children could become accomplished artists.[citation needed]
He began his career in the field of publishing as a secretary and, in the field of journalism, notably the Patriot Illustré, before taking the path to theater. In 1968, he began with the publication of Europa, in Belgium. Kalisky wrote several historical pieces including Trotsky (1969), Skandalon (1970), Jim le Téméraire and Le Pique-Nique de Claretta (1973). He also authored two major essays published in 1968 and reissued in the 1980s on Arab political history, L’origine et l’essor du monde arabe and Le monde arabe à l'heure actuelle: Le réveil et la quête de l’unité. He worked with Jacques Lemarchand, director of the established collection "Le Manteau d’Arlequin", at Gallimard in France until 1974.
His career slowly began to flourish as he received several literary prizes, including the Annual Dramatic Literature Prize awarded by the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers in 1974 and the Triennial Grand Prize for Dramatic Literature awarded by the Government in 1975. He then was awarded by Germany and asked to craft an original project across a yearlong stay in former western Berlin. In 1977, the French editor, Stock published several controversial pieces, including, “La passion selon Pier Paolo Pasolini”, “Dave au bord de mer”, “Résumé” and “Du sur jeu au sur texte” in which he describes us his own and personal vision of his theater work.
He abruptly died of lung cancer aged 44. Among his friends and contemporary authors, Romain Gary shared a special relationship with Kalisky, as he viewed them, as recalled by their published correspondence.[3] An abundant published correspondence with Antoine Vitez likewise showed how close they had become.[4]
Falsch, his last play, (1980), Éditions Labor was published posthumoustly, 1983
Du Surjeu au surtexte, in Dave au Bord de Mer, Paris, L'Arche, 1992, pp. 91–109
L’origine et l’essor du monde arabe : L’essor et le déclin d’un empire, (1968), (1980), Marabout-Université Full text available on the Bibliothèque Nationale Website
Le monde arabe à l'heure actuelle: Le réveil et la quête de l’unité, (1974), Marabout-Université
Le pique-nique de Claretta, (1973), NRF, Gallimard, and France Culture, Directed by Michel Dezoteux, PRIX TRIENNAL DE THÉÂTRE DU MINISTRE DE LA CULTURE FRANÇAISE 1975.
Sionisme ou dispersion, (1974), Marabout-Université
Charles le téméraire, (1975), Éd. Jacques Antoine
Le tiercé de Jack<, (1975), Scenario
Europa, (1968), Alternatives théâtrales 1995, Directed by Marc Olinger
"Le tiercé de Jack" adapted in (1975) by Jean-Pierre Berckmanstelling the story of Jack, sixteen, a young Jew, who saw his father arrested by the Nazis. He had to hide himself to escape deportation, to death. He lives with his mother in the obsession of this tragic past. Everywhere, in the street, at the leather shop where he works, he continues to feel a different being, frowned upon, persecuted.
The "surtexte" technique that he forged along his short career has been studied by numerous directors and authors as defined by Encyclopedia Universalis.[1] That new concept could be related to "Brecht's "distancing effect" ("Verfremdungseffekt"), which aims to break the theatrical illusion to awaken the critical sense of the audience by giving it to see the artificial nature of representation, and thus making everyone aware of his position as a spectator"[21]
Serge Goriely, Le théâtre de René Kalisky, Brussels, PIE Peter Lang, 2008.
Gilbert Debuscher, D'Aristote a Kalisky, Brussels, Université de Bruxelles, 2004. Downloadable Full Text
Agnese Silvestri, René Kalisky, une poétique de la répétition, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2006. 415 p.
Marc QUAGHEBEUR, Ballet de la déception exaltée : Jim le Téméraire de René Kalisky In: Ecritures de l' imaginaire: dix études sur neuf écrivains belges, Bruxelles, Labor (Archives du futur), 1985, p. 159-211
Anne-Françoise Benhamou, Kalisky, Vitez et le temps enrouléinL'Art du théâtre, Actes Sud, 1989, Antoine Vitez à Chaillot, pp. 108–110
Michael Delaunoy, Rêveries à propos de Trotsky, etc... de René Kalisky, L'Harmattan, « Études théâtrales », 2011 Full Text
Falsch, translated in German by Ruth Henry, Bad Homburg Hunzinger-Bühnenverlag, 1984.
Jim the Lionhearted, translated in English by David Willinger and Luc Deneulin An Anthology of Recent Belgian Plays, Troy, NY, Whitston Publishing Company, 1984.
Claretta Picknick, translated in German by Andres Müry, Bad Homburg Hunzinger-Bühnenverlag, 1983.
Jim der Kühne, translated in German by Andres Müry, Bad Homburg Hunzinger-Bühnenverlag, 1985.
Dave on the Beach, translated in English by David Willinger and Luc Deneulin, in An Anthology of Recent Belgian Plays, Troy, NY, Whitston Publishing Company, 1984.
On the Ruins of Carthago, translated in English by Anne Marie Glasheen, in Four Belgian playwrights, Gambli n°42-43, 1986
Aida Vencida, translated in Spanish by Carmen Giralt, Publicaciones de la Asociación de Directores de Escena de España, 1993.
Europa, translated in Spanish by Carmen Giralt, Publicaciones de la Asociación de Directores de Escena de España, 1993.
Skandalon translated in Italian by Brunella Eruli, Gremese Editore, 2007.
Jim il Temerario translated in Italian by Brunella Eruli, Gremese Editore, 2007.
Il picnic di Claretta, translated in Italian by Brunella Eruli, Gremese Editore, 2007.
La Passione secondo Pier Paolo Pasolini, translated in Italian by Brunella Eruli, Teatro Belgo contemporaneo, Gênes, Coste el Nolan, 1984.
Europa, translated in Italian by Brunella Eruli, Gremese Editore, 2007.
Sulle rovine di Cartagine, translated in Italian by Brunella Eruli, Gremese Editore, 2007.
Pasja według Piera Paola Pasoliniego, translated in Polish by Kuchta, Barbara Mickiewicz-Morawska, Dorota.
Il regno impossibile, translated in Italian by Brunella Piccione, Omnia Editrice, 1986.
Het onmogelijke koninkrijk, translated in Dutch by Ton Luyben, Anvers, Manteau, 1987.
Storia del mondo arabo, translated in Italian, Bertani, 1972
