Paul Raynal

Paul Raynal (25th July 1885 in Narbonne; † 18th August 1971 in Paris) was a French playwright who had considerable success in the 1920s and 1930s, but is now largely ignored. His anti-war play Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe (1924) was the most performed war play of the inter-war years.

Raynal was educated by Dominicans. He went to Paris to study medicine, but then changed to study law before deciding to become a playwright. He fought in the First World War, both in Champagne and in the Army of the Orient (i.e., on the Salonika Front). In 1940, during the Second World War, German troops ransacked a house he was renting in the Oise department, destroying or removing a number of his manuscripts and papers, as well as books from his library.

Plays

1920: Le maitre de son coeur, a comedy in three acts.

1924: Le Tombeau sous l'Arc de Triomphe, a tragedy in three acts.

1932: Au seuil de l'Instinct, a tragedy in three acts.

1933: La Francerie, a play in three acts.

1937: Napoléon unique, an epic comedy in three acts.

1941: A souffert sous Ponce Pilate, a play in three acts.

1946: Le Matériel humain, a play in three acts and an epilogue.