José Ignacio Cabrujas
José Ignacio Cabrujas is recognized as one of Venezuela's foremost playwrights, alongside Roman Chalbaud and Isaac Chocron. His theatrical journey began in 1956 with the Teatro de la Universidad Central in Caracas, where he penned his early works, including "Juan Francisco de León" and "El sopa de piedra." After furthering his education at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, Cabrujas returned to Venezuela, where he gained acclaim for his plays such as "El extraño viaje de Simón el malo" and "Los insurgentes." He was a founding member of El Nuevo Grupo in 1967, contributing significantly as a playwright, actor, and director.
Cabrujas’s most notable work, "El día que me quieras," intertwines Marxist themes with the beloved tangos of Carlos Gardel, exploring familial conflicts and political commentary within the setting of 1930s Caracas. Transitioning to television in the 1970s, he wrote numerous scripts for plays and soap operas, showcasing his versatility. His career concluded with the development of "Sonny," a modern retelling of Shakespeare's "Othello," which he was working on at the time of his death in 1995. Cabrujas's legacy remains a significant part of Venezuelan theater and television history.
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Subject Terms
José Ignacio Cabrujas
Writer
- Born: July 12, 1937
- Birthplace: Caracas, Venezuela
- Died: October 21, 1995
Biography
José Ignacio Cabrujas is considered one of Venezuela’s three leading playwrights, in the company of Roman Chalbaud and Isaac Chocron. Cabrujas began his acting career in 1956, when he became associated with the Teatro de la Universidad Central in Caracas. During his affiliation with the group, he wrote two plays, Juan Francisco de León in 1959, and El sopa de piedra in 1960. Upon leaving the Universidad Central, he went to Italy and continued his studies at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan.
Upon his return to Venezuela, he oversaw the production of two of his plays, El estraño viaje de Simón el malo, and Los insurgentes, both of which met with acclaim, and wrote or collaborated on a number of other plays. He was associated with various theatrical groups during this period, and in 1961 was a founding member of the Teatro Arte de Caracas. In 1967, Cabrujas, Chalbaud, and Chocron founded El Nuevo Grupo (The New Group) in Caracas. Cabrujas wrote plays for this group, acted in its productions, and directed some of its plays, all of which gave him a realistic view of what playwrighting technically entailed.
Cabrujas’s most celebrated play is El día que me quieras, popular for its intermixture of the popular Marxist doctrine of the 1930’s with the celebrated tangos of Carlos Gardel. The play is about the Ancizar family, in whose Caracas home the action takes place. Set in 1935, the play pits the two Ancizar sisters against each other. Elvira, the elder of the two, is a stern, implacable women, while Maria Luisa is an unabashed romantic. Their brother, Placido, drinks too much and is drunk through much of the play. The three live together, along with Matilde, their high-strung cousin. Pio Miranda, an idealistic young Communist, expects to elope with Maria Luisa, then whisk her away to the Stalinist Ukraine, where they will live out their lives in a socialistic paradise. Just before this can happen, however, Carlos Gardel, the superstar tango musician, arrives on the scene and turns Maria Luisa’s head completely. The resulting chaos within this troubled family is amusing but also makes a political statement.
By 1976, Cabrujas had turned away from writing for the legitimate stage and concentrated on the lucrative television market, writing scripts for a long procession of television plays and soap operas. At the time of his death in 1995, he was working on his last play, Sonny, a modernized version of William Shakespeare’s Othello, in which the protagonist is a boxer reminiscent of Joe Bonaparte in Clifford Odets’s play Golden Boy.