Émile Fabre

Émile Fabre (born March 24, 1869, Metz, Fr.—died Sept. 25, 1955, Paris) was a French playwright and administrator of the Comédie-Française (1915–36) who developed it into a vehicle for classical and contemporary repertory.

The son of a stage manager, Fabre began writing and producing plays at the age of 13. Comme ils sont tous (1894; “As They All Are”) was his first success, followed by a series of popular political and social satires: L’Argent (1895; “Silver”), La Vie publique (1905), Les Ventres dorés (1905; “The Golden Bowels”), and Les Sauterelles (1911; “The Grasshoppers”), which attacked colonial administration. Other plays included a series of family tragedies and adaptations of two novels by Honoré de Balzac.