What did Artaud mean by the Theatre and its double?
Table of Contents
… Théâtre et son double (1938; The Theatre and Its Double) call for a communion between actor and audience in a magic exorcism; gestures, sounds, unusual scenery, and lighting combine to form a language, superior to words, that can be used to subvert thought and logic and to shock the spectator…
Which playwright is associated with Theatre of cruelty and is famous for his influential 1938 book the Theatre and Its Double?
Artaud
Artaud expounded his theories in a series of essays, collected in 1938 under the title “The Theatre and Its Double.” He called his vision of theater the Theatre of Cruelty.
What is most important it seems to me is not so much to defend a culture whose?
What is more important, it seems to me, is not so much to defend a culture whose existence has never kept a man from going hungry, as to extract, from what is called culture, ideas whose compelling force is identical with that of hunger.
What are the conventions of Theatre of cruelty?
Stagecraft
- Emphasis on light and sound in performances.
- Sound was often loud, piercing, and hypnotising for the audience.
- The audience’s senses were assaulted with movement, light and sound (hence ‘cruelty’)
- Music and sound (voice, instrument, recorded) often accompanied stage movement or text.
Why did Artaud create the Theatre of cruelty?
By turning theatre into a place where the spectator is exposed rather than protected, Artaud was committing an act of cruelty upon them. Artaud wanted to put the audience in the middle of the ‘spectacle’ (his term for the play), so they would be ‘engulfed and physically affected by it’.
When did Artaud create Theatre of Cruelty?
Between 1931 and 1936 Artaud formulated a theory for what he called a Theatre of Cruelty in a series of essays published in the Nouvelle Revue Française and collected in 1938 as Le Théâtre et son double (The Theatre and Its Double).
How did Artaud influence modern theatre?
Artaud wanted to disrupt the relationship between audience and performer. The ‘cruelty’ in Artaud’s thesis was sensory, it exists in the work’s capacity to shock and confront the audience, to go beyond words and connect with the emotions: to wake up the nerves and the heart.