Antonio Garau

Antonio Garau is the author of highly appreciated and successful plays in the Sardinian language, which have enjoyed a wide distribution not only at a popular level.
He was born, the fifth of seven children, in Oristano on June 3, 1907 to a family of merchants. He immediately showed that he had a talent for humanistic studies, but when his sister died in 1922, his father forced him to leave the Salesian college in Santu Lusorgia. In 1929 he asked his father, who forbade him, to be able to enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts. However, he attends the theaters of Oristano and is passionate about the genre. Around 1930 he discovered the writings of Efisio Vincenzo Melis di Guasila, which opened the doors of popular theater in the Sardinian language to him. The first work written in his own hand is “Is Campanas de Santu Sadurru” (1934). The other very famous plays follow: 'Peppantiogu s'Enricu' (1936), 'Pibiri Sardu' (1943) and 'Sonnu trumbullau' (1945). The turning point in dramatic technique was in 1950 with 'Basciura', in which the easy laugh snatched from the audience with a gag was replaced by a more bitter laugh, revealing the unfathomable feelings of the human soul. After a long break, in the Seventies he wrote 'Last Supper' (1972), 'Sa Corona de Tzia Belledda' (1975), 'Cicciu Fruschedda' (1977), and 'Su Mundu de tziu Bachis' (1979). For Sergio Bullegas, who has thoroughly studied Garau's work, the author's narrative universe moves with great respect and great sensitivity for the innocent world of the humble and the poor of the Sardinian countries. With the death of Garau, the Sardinian-language theater entered a phase of serious crisis that has not yet found a way

to compose itself.

Update

4/3/2025 - 19:32