Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud (1896-1948), French poet, dramatist, and actor, whose theories and work influenced the development of experimental theatre. He was born and educated in Marseille. Artaud went to Paris in 1920 and became a stage and screen performer. In 1926 he cofounded the Théâtre Alfred Jarry, where he produced several plays until it closed after a few seasons. In 1935 he produced his own adaptation of Les Cenci, an illustration of his concept of the “Theatre of Cruelty”. He used this term to define a new theatre that minimized the spoken word and relied instead on a combination of physical movement and gesture, non-specific sounds, and the elimination of conventional spatial arrangements and sets. Their senses thus disoriented, spectators would be forced to confront the inner, primal self, stripped of its civilized veneer. Hindered by lifelong physical and mental illness, Artaud was unable to implement his theories. His book Le Théâtre et son Double (1938; trans. 1958) describes theatrical modes that later, however, became identifying traits of the ensemble theatre movement, the theatre of cruelty, the theatre of the absurd, and the environmental and ritual theatre. See also Drama and Dramatic Arts.