Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud was born on the 4th September 1896 was a French dramatist, actor, poet and pioneer of the surrealist movement. He viewed the classical "bourgeois" as unintelligent and wished to replace it with his system: "The Theatre of Cruelty". This was a more symbolic meaningful form that wished to liberate the subconscious of man. Artaud believed society had turned humans into repressed, sick savages and the objective of this type of theatre was to unleash unconscious reactions. He didn't want his audience to be immersed and escape reality rather show them their deepest darkest nightmares and fears. Artaud saw that all humans wore a mask put their by society and wanted to create conditions to provoke the audience to take them of and have a good look at themselves.

Artuad said that "from a mental viewpoint cruelty means strictness, diligence, unrelenting decisiveness, irreversible absolute determination". This means that he believed that cruelty encompassed many elements of mankind; many of these words sound positive on inspection and to be honest I don't totally understand this quote but I  believe he was trying to characterise the dichotomy within his work. Artaud believed the theatre was safe to explore, he thought theatre was a tool and crosses barriers of language and communication. In order to get the most out of his actors and audience he utilised "Total Theatre". He would use any device at his disposal including sound, lighting, props, costume, sets etc. He wished to bombard the senses and batter the brain into submission. When this happens we stop intellectualising everything and just let the subconscious take control. Artaud regarded Theatre as a participatory and wished to tear down the fourth and let audiences become part of the action. This meant the audience wouldn't separate the play from themselves and see they were as much part of this world as the actors.

When Artaud was 18 he became ill with neurasthenia and to help him with his symptoms he was given opium. He later on became addicted to this drug. Then in 1916 he was inducted to the army but was released shortly after because of mental instability and drug addiction. In 1918 he committed himself to a clinic and stayed there for 2 years. When he was released he immediately went to Paris to train under the actor/director Charles Dullin. Artaud then pursued a career as an actor starring in films and plays e.g."The passion of Joan of arc" and "Six characters in search of an author".

 Around the late 1920's Artaud became highly interested in the surrealist movement and began collaborating with other artists, poets, film-makers and theatre makers and founded his own company (Theatre Alfred Jerry) along the way. In 1931 he saw a of Balinese performers and finally found what he was artistically looking for.  In 1932-33 he wrote his first drama theory book (Manifestos of the theatre of cruelty) then in 1935 he began working on "Les Cenci" to implement his own theories; this production could be cited as one of the first to be in the round. However his artistic aims were never met and heartbroken he retreated to Mexico. In 1937 in the middle of a lecture he began screaming at the audience and in the same year he was declared mentally unfit and sent to an asylum. During this time he wrote his most influential work "The Theatre and it's double". He spent nine years in different institution being treated for schizophrenia.

On his return to Paris he was labelled a genius after a 3 hour lecture attended by some very important people. In 1948 he died of intestinal cancer, seated next to his bed, allegedly holding a shoe. What a end to a very chaotic life.

Sources:
http://www.leninimports.com/antonin_artaud.html
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonin-Artaud
http://www.almaclassics.com/excerpts/Theatre_Double.pdf