Matei VisniecMatei Visniec born in 1956 in Romania, now settled in Paris, working as a journalist at Radio France International. In Romania, he studied history and philosophy, before writing for the theatre in 1977. During the following 10 years, he wrote ome 20 plays, but all of them were banned by the Romanian censors. In 1987 he was invited to France by a literary foundation and he asked for political asylum. Since then, he has been writing mostly in French and he has received French nationality. After the fall of communism in Romania in December 1989, Visniec became the most performed playwright in the country, with more than 20 plays staged in Bucharest and other towns. In October 1996, the National Theatre of Timisoara, organised a Visniec Festival with 12 companies presenting his plays. His international audience as a playwright started in 1992 with the play Horses at the Windows, performed in France and Clown Wanted at the Bonner Biennale in Germany. Since then, more than 10 of his plays have been performed in France: Théâtre Guichet Montparn-asse, Studio des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Rond-Point de Champs Elysées- Paris, Théâtre de l'Utopie- La Rochelle, Compagnie Pli Urgent -Lyon and Théâtre le Jodel -Avignon, Théâtre de Lenche and Théâtre de la Minoterie - Marseille, Compagnie Nice- Théâtre Vivant-Nice etc. 1999 Drama Award of the Romanian Union of Writers, 1998 Drama Award of the Academy of Romania, 1995 and 1996 Award Avignon-off at the Avignon Theatre Festival. 1994 Award of the S.A.C.D. for The story of pandas... 1991 Award for Clown Wanted, best play of the year in Romania.

His plays include: Clown Wanted, Decomposed Theatre, The Spectator sentenced to death, Pockets full of Bread, The story of pandas, told by a saxophonist with a girlfriend in Frankfurt, Three Nights with Madox, The Last Godot, Horses at the Window, How To Explain The History of Communism To Mental Patients. Read More Read Less