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Antonin Artaud: Theatre of Cruelty

Artaud created 'Theatre of cruelty,' which is an intense theatrical experience that combines elaborate props, magic tricks, special lighting, primitive gestures and articulations, with themes that are created to be uncomfortable to shock the audience into confronting the harsh realities of the world around them.

-Briefly followed surrealism

-Got his inspiration from balinese dance this is why the gestures performed by the actors were usually symbolic rather than natural.

-Conventional theatre of the time, was targeted toward the elite and wealthy, and aimed to imitate real life. Artaud and others like Brecht wanted theatre to be for the masses not just the wealthy and elite, as they both believed that theatre has the potential and power to change the way the audience experienced the theatre and viewed the world around them. But while Brecht saw problems with society, Artaud believed that man's issues stemmed from the subconscious.

-The Theatre of Cruelty, defined in the late 1930s, took the Surrealist approach to create its own violent and ritualised theory of drama.

-Artaud held a very pessimistic view of the world and believed it to be harsh, cruel and in desperate need of change. He believed the world was meaningless and all humans had no aim and were purposelessness.

-He based "Theatre of Cruelty" on the theory of existentialism which believed that the human life was completely meaningless and useless as the theory states that as humans we are born with nothing and we die with nothing.

- Artaud regarded fear, panic and suffering as basic elements of the human condition and he wanted to stimulate these responses through the creation of what he called the Theatre of Cruelty.

Elements in Theatre of Cruelty

-Largely movement based (very physical)

-Aimed to shock the senses of its audience

-Text and dialogue was not at the centre of Artaud’s theatre, as he believed that dance and gesture could be more powerful than dialogue.

-There was usually loud, uncomfortable sound effects

-Harsh lighting state

-Focused more on improvisation rather than scripts

-Ritualistic movements often replaced text or spoken word

-His stylised movement was referred to as 'visual poetry'

-Colour, light and costume created a theatrical atmosphere unlike practitioners such as Brecht and Grotowski who believed in minimalistic set and costuming.

-The actors were encouraged to portray their emotions openly unlike in Brechtian style performances where the social/political message is the central focus of the piece.

Theatre of Cruelty and the relationship with the audience

-His intension was to trap the audience into the drama that was occurring on the stage

-He experimented with actor-audience relationship

-Intimate spacial relationship between the actor and the audience, in fact the audience would usually be immersed into the action that was going on. (JUST LIKE THE PERFORMANCE WE PUT ON WHEN MS.MORAN WAS A PART OF THE PIECE AS SHE PLAYED ONE OF THE PATIENTS JUST LIKE THE ACTORS)

Marat Sade Performance Planning:

Storyboard of stage set-up