Download Antonin Artaud (1896 – 1948)

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: The 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….
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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 16th and 17th 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
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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 20th 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…