Artaud on Theatre

by Antonin Artaud, Claude Schumacher (Editor), Brian Singleton

With Brecht and Meyerhold, Antonin Artaud was one of the great visionaries of twentieth-century theatre, best known perhaps for what he called the "Theatre of Cruelty." This revised and updated edition of Artaud on Theatre contains all of his key writings on theatre and cinema from 1921 to his death in 1948, including new selections which have never before appeared in English. Together with an Introduction, biographical notes, and commentary, the collection charts Artaud's work from his early association with surrealism, through his founding of the Théâtre Alfred Jarry, to the invocation of his compelling vision in his most famous manifesto, The Theatre and Its Double . Artaud's poetic and inspirational writings called for a fundamental regeneration of Western art. He wanted to return the theatre to its roots in ritual and to transform the audience through total emotional, psychic, and physical involvement. Anarchic and disruptive, he was misunderstood, silenced, and ostracized in his lifetime, but was later championed as an icon of the sixties counterculture. His ideas have inspired the work of Genet, Arrabal, The Living Theatre, Grotowski, Brook, and most of the experimental drama and performance work of recent decades.

"One of the great daring mapmakers of consciousness in extremis."―Susan Sontag

Genres: Theatre, France

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1988

About the author

French surrealist poet and playwright Antonin Artaud advocated a deliberately shocking and confrontational style of drama that he called "theater of cruelty."

People better knew Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, an essayist, actor, and director.

Considered among the most influential figures in the evolution of modern theory, Antonin Artaud associated with artists and experimental groups in Paris during the 1920s.

Political differences then resulted in him breaking and founding the theatre Alfred Jarry with Roger Vitrac and Robert Aron. Together, they expected to create a forum for works to change radically. Artaud especially expressed disdain for west of the day, panned the ordered plot and scripted language that his contemporaries typically employed to convey ideas, and recorded his ideas in such works as Le Theatre de la cruaute and The Theatre and Its Double .

Artaud thought to represent reality and to affect the much possible audience and therefore used a mixture of strange and disturbing forms of lighting, sound, and other performance elements.

Artaud wanted that the "spectacle" that "engulfed and physically affected" this audience, put in the middle. He referred to this layout like a "vortex," a "trapped and powerless" constantly shifting shape.

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artaud is nowhere else so plainly revealed, in all his brilliance and madness as in his Epistolary record. Many candid moments of doubt in himself contrasted with an awesome and terrifying belief in his mission, and moments of pure shock that made me gasp aloud. A momentous read.

[Andrew Cockcroft-Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Olivier said “I don’t think the theatre can quite handle genius…” he must only be referring to Artaud. The contribution from Artaud is so immense, so evocative and so dense that to pursue his vision of theatre is to abandon all other forms of art. To be reborn and force rebirth on the world, through histrionic hellfire, blood and pure eroticism as to push society past its breaking point. Artaud was truly a tormented, for how many of us have died multiple times? It almost seems that he was the sane one, in a world of insanity. He was right.

I do not recommend.