List of notable or famous playwrights from Belgium, with bios and photos, including the top playwrights born in Belgium and even some popular playwrights who immigrated to Belgium. If you're trying to find out the names of famous Belgian playwrights then this list is the perfect resource for you. These playwrights are among the most prominent in their field, and information about each well-known playwright from Belgium is included when available.
The list you're viewing is made up of a variety of different people, including Maurice Maeterlinck and Hugo Claus.
This historic playwrights from Belgium list can help answer the questions "Who are some Belgian playwrights of note?" and "Who are the most famous playwrights from Belgium?" These prominent playwrights of Belgium may or may not be currently alive, but what they all have in common is that they're all respected Belgian playwrights.
Use this list of renowned Belgian playwrights to discover some new playwrights that you aren't familiar with. Don't forget to share this list by clicking one of the social media icons at the top or bottom of the page. {#nodes}
Albert Vanloo (Brussels, 10 September 1846 – 1920, Paris) was a Belgian librettist and playwright.
Vanloom lived in Paris as a child and was attracted to the theatre. As a young student he began writing plays and opéra comique libretti, notably withi Eugène Leterrier who remained his main collaborator until the latter's death in 1884. He also worked with the writers William Busnach, Henri Chivot and Georges Duval.
Cyrillus Gustave Emile "Cyriel" Buysse (pronounced [siˈril ˈbœysə]; 20 September 1859 – 25 July 1932) was a Flemish naturalist author and playwright. He also wrote under the following pseudonyms: Louis Bonheyden, Prosper Van Hove and Robert Palmer.
Hugo Maurice Julien Claus (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦyɣoː ˈklʌu̯s]; 5 April 1929 – 19 March 2008) was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, the novel, and poetry; he also left a legacy as a painter and film director. He wrote primarily in Dutch, although he also wrote some poetry in English.
His death by euthanasia, which is legal in Belgium, led to considerable controversy.
Jaco Van Dormael (born 9 February 1957) is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and playwright. His films especially focus on a respectful and sympathetic portrayal of people with mental and physical disabilities.
Van Dormael spent his childhood travelling around Europe, before going on to study filmmaking at the INSAS in Brussels, where he wrote and directed his first short film, Maedeli la brèche (1981), which received the Honorary Foreign Film Award at the Student Academy Awards. Van Dormael's feature debut, Toto le héros (1991), won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Five years later, Le huitième jour (1996) played at Cannes, where his two leading actors, Daniel Auteuil and Pascal Duquenne, were jointly awarded the prize for Best Actor. His third feature film, Mr. Nobody (2009), won six Magritte Awards, including Best Film and Best Director.
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911 "in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations". The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life. His plays form an important part of the Symbolist movement.
