He was born in Madrid in 1901, and began to write as a young man with contributions to journals and newspapers. He wrote his first comedy at the age of 17. In 1929 he penned his first novel, Amor se escribe sin hache, in which he created a style based on the absurdity of situations and containing an extreme caricature of the poverty of the time. In 1933 he collaborated on various screenplays for Hollywood. In 1941 he began writing pieces for the satirical weekly La Codorniz, under the editorship of Miguel Mihura. His greatest achievements came as a dramatist, with such works as Los ladrones somos gente honrada and Eloísa está debajo de un almendro. In them he managed to combine the characteristics of the traditional bourgeois comedy and the experimental currents of the time, thus managing to breathe new life into Spanish theatre and introduce it to the theatre of absurd.
Awards
National Theatre Award (1946)
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Eloisa is under the almond tree
Enrique Jardiel Poncela’s opus magnum that renewed post-war comedy drama.
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Other highlighted works
- Los ladrones somos gente honrada
- Cuatro corazones con freno y marcha atrás
- Los habitantes de la casa deshabitada
- Amor se escribe sin hache
- Pero… ¿Hubo alguna vez once mil vírgenes?
- Usted tiene ojos de mujer fatal
- La tournée de Dios
