Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud (September 4, 1896–March 4, 1948) was a playwright, actor, and director.

Related Topics:
September 4 - 1896 - March 4 - 1948 - Playwright - Actor - Director

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In his book Theatre and its Double, Artaud expressed his admiration for Eastern forms of theatre, particularly the Balinese Theatre. He admired Eastern theatre because of the codified, highly ritualized physicality of Balinese dance performance, and advocated what he called a "Theatre of Cruelty". By cruelty, he meant not sadism or causing pain, but rather a violent, physical determination to shatter the false reality which, he said, lies like a shroud over our perceptions. He believed that text had been a tyrant over meaning, and advocated, instead, for a theatre made up of a unique language halfway-between thought and gesture. He also believed that sexual activity, including masturbation, was harmful to the creative process and should be avoided if one hoped to achieve purity in their art.

Related Topics:
Theatre and its Double - Eastern - Bali - Dance - Theatre of Cruelty - Cruelty - Sadism - Reality - Perception - Masturbation

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Antonin Artaud described the spiritual in physical terms, and believed that all expression is physical expression in space. Although he advocated a system of "social therapy" through theatre, Artaud was institutionalized for some time because he was considered insane.

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:The Theatre of Cruelty has been created in order to restore to the theatre a passionate and convulsive conception of life, and it is in this sense of violent rigour and extreme condensation of scenic elements that the cruelty on which it is based must be understood. This cruelty, which will be bloody when necessary but not systematically so, can thus be identified with a kind of severe moral purity which is not afraid to pay life the price it must be paid."

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:– Antonin Artaud, The Theatre of Cruelty, in The Theory of the Modern Stage. Edited by E. Bentley. Penguin, 1968, p.66

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