Many trades, one character
Théodore Beaubrun, known to everyone as Languichatte Débordus, was born in Port-au-Prince on 18 December 1918. He worked as a comedian, actor, journalist, playwright, teacher and satirical author.
His school years were eventful and took him through several institutions in turn: Petit Séminaire St-Martial, Lycée Pétion, l’École Tippenhauer and Antonio Vieux.
The sociologist in the comic suit
Some question what he contributed politically. That question misses what politics is — the art of living together. Through his work he taught life, love, psychology, household management, sociology, friendship, social class, relationships, migration, and how to look at ourselves.
He used comedy to get at what was otherwise hard to say aloud: our bourgeois sensitivities, the tensions between Macoute and Lavalas, our antagonistic streak, our appetite for polarization, and our collective struggle with self-importance.
Sixty years of work
- 1938Avocat LanguichatteJust before his twentieth birthday, he writes the sketch that names the character he will play for the rest of his life.
- 1941Comedy on the radioHe takes the sketches to radio, working with Jean Faublas and Georges Karaha.
- 1942The troupe, and the RexHe forms the troupe Languichatte and opens with Mariage Languichatte at the Rex Theater in Port-au-Prince — a remarkable success for a newcomer. Coup sur coup and La maison de Baca follow the same year, Ti Zoute in 1943.
- 1944Rasoir MagazineHe founds the magazine and spends six years away from the stage before returning to the theater.
- 1954National TheaterHe becomes director of the National Theater of Port-au-Prince.
- 1982Two stages at onceHe plays the father in the TNH television series Languichatte in the 20th Century, alongside Azibe and Mélanie — theatrical in effect, intricate in its twists, and formative for a whole generation. The same year he writes and directs Life in New York at the Rex, on what Haitian immigrants face trying to adapt to the world’s capital city.
