Antonin Artaud 1896 1948 No figure has been

Antonin Artaud (1896 – 1948)

No figure has been so raided for his dreams as Artaud. At the same time, no one has been so misunderstood… He has been labelled a: PROPHET MARTYR MADMAN CULT FIGURE DRUG ADDICT For almost 9 years of his life he was incarcerated in institutions, a voice silenced and unheard. He spent months of his life in voluntary exile undergoing voluntary detoxification

His Vision Artaud’s vision was vastly different from his contemporaries… He wanted to: • Break the boundaries between audience / performer • He wanted the appeal of theatre to be the experience of the senses. • Audiences should be unsettled and shocked

…his vision continued… He really wanted for the performance to do 4 things… 1. Appeal to the SENSES 2. Put a stress on RITUAL 3. Create a sense of DISORDER 4. Create a sense of ANARCHY All this must be strongly controlled, choreographed so as to appear chaotic

The Theatre and its Double This was the title of a collection/book of essays he wrote and published in 1938. “I think I have found a suitable title for my book. It will be: Theatre and It’s Double for if theatre is the double of life, life is the double of true theatre…this title corresponds to all the doubles of theatre which I though I had found over so many years: metaphysics, the plague and cruelty. ”

Theatre and Its Double METAPHYSICS There were 3 influences on this aspect of his writing and theatre: Balinese dancers: These were a group of dancers he saw in 1931. He wanted to copy the effect they used of how gesture and facial expression played on an audience’s unconscious.

Influences upon Artaud include…. • • Lot and his Daughters Balinese Dancing Marx Brothers Metaphysics (which attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms: "What is there? “ "What is it like?

The story of the destruction of Sodom, Lot's escape, and his subsequent seduction by his two daughters is told in Genesis. Lot and his family were allowed to leave the city on condition that they did not look back. Lot's wife disobeyed the instruction and was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot continued on with his daughters. Since their husbands had not fled with them, the daughters said to each other: "Our father is old and there is not a man in the country to come to us in the usual way. Come now, let us make our father drink wine and then lie with him and in this way keep the family alive through our father. " The sons born of this union subsequently founded the tribes of the Moabites and the Ammonites. Both as a strongly erotic group painting and as a history painting, the subject was a popular one in the 16 th and 17 th century. This painting, whose attribution to van Leyden - said to have executed his first commission at the age of twelve - is not altogether certain, falls into the second category. Alongside the group in the foreground, the destruction of Sodom seen in the left-hand background establishes a second point of focus. Influenced by Patenier, the painter portrays a kind of "global landscape" extending from the front lefthand corner into the depths of the composition. He thereby devotes particular care to the execution of the landscape details.

Balinese Dancing • • • The notion of theatrical ritual – certain gestures/movements are repeated in order to emphasise meaning to the spectators to emphasise their importance. It is a very useful idea to brainstorm the word ‘ritual’ to see what ideas students associate with it. Try to move them away from notions of ‘sacrifice’ towards ideas of repetition, power, ceremony, etc. Gestures/movements which have a specific meaning or purpose – this led Artaud to consider how certain gestures or actions on stage could ‘stand for states of mind. ’ Gestures and movements were highly precise and stylised. Each had a specific symbolic meaning. Gestures were often synchronised with other performers or to music or sounds. They were exaggerated and at times had a circular or gyrational quality. Balinese dance was a form of performance that existed entirely without dialogue so all communication was done physically. Music was used and precise, graceful gestures were timed to it. The only sounds were the music used or the sudden nonverbal sounds of the performers– singing and chanting Costumes were highly ornate, colourful and beautiful. Headdresses and masks were used. These were highly decorated with bright colours and feathers. The costumes themselves had an emotional impact on Artaud but they did not communicate a sense of individual character. This was clearly in-keeping with his belief that theatre was not there to discuss individual problems. It was more profound than that.

The Marx Brothers The rapid juxtaposition of imagery creates laughter. E. g. A woman about to be kissed who turns into a cow…. Artaud saw laughter as a great liberator. He wanted to quickly take his audience from tears to laughter and thus create a sense of surrealism He saw this most predominantly in the work of the Marx Brothers – a comedy quartet who worked in the early 20 th Century

Theatre and Its Double THE PLAGUE Artaud looked at the effect a plague has on society. The social breakdown and disorder it causes is what he wanted to use for theatre. He wanted theatre gestures and push them to the same limit – extremes. Theatre, he thought, should DISTURB and CHALLENGE our SENSE of REALITY

Theatre and Its Double CRUELTY The third ‘double’ is its cruelty… Artaud believed it should… “go to the very end of all that the director can exert on the sensibility of the actor and spectator. ” In other words, push the limits the audience can take…