Notes Made By Artaud On The Theatre Of Cruelty

 I employ the word "cruelty" in the sense of an appetite for life, a cosmic rigor, an implacable necessity, in the gnostic sense of a living whirlwind that devours the darkness; it is the consequence of an act. Everything that acts is a cruelty. It is upon this idea of extreme action, pushed beyond all limits, that theatre must be rebuilt.


Gifted actors find by instinct how to tap and radiate certain powers; but they would be astonished if it were revealed that these powers, which have their material trajectory by and in the organs, actually exist, for they never realized that these sources of energy actually exist in their own bodies, in their organs.


Psychology, which works relentlessly to reduce the unknown to the known, to the quotidian and the ordinary, is the cause of the theater's abasement and its fearful loss of energy, which has finally reached its lowest point.


The belief in a fluid materiality of the soul is indispensable to the actor's craft. To know that a passion is material, that it is subject to the plastic fluctuations of the material, makes accessible an empire of passions that extend our sovereignty.


Furthermore, when we speak the word "life", it must be understood we are not referring to life as we know it from the surface of fact, but to that fragile, fluctuating center which forms never reach. And if there is one hellish, truly accursed thing in our time, it is our artistic dallying with forms, when instead we should become as victims burning at the stake, signaling each other through the flames.


And what is infinity ? We do not know exactly. It is a word we use to indicate WIDENING of our consciousness towards an inordinate, inexhaustible feasibility.


To make metaphysics out of a spoken language is to make the language express what it does not ordinarily express. It is to make use of it in a new, exceptional and unaccustomed fashion; to reveal its possibilities for producing physical shock; to deal with intonations in an absolutely concrete manner, restoring their power to shatter as well as to really manifest something and finally, to consider language as Incantation.


The true purpose of the theatre is to create Myths, to express life in its immense universal aspect, and from that life to extract images in which we find pleasure in discovering ourselves.


If our life lacks a constant magic, it is because we choose to observe our acts and lose ourselves in consideration of their imagined form instead of being impelled by their force. No matter how loudly we clamor for magic in our lives, we are really afraid of pursuing an existence entirely under its influence and sign.

Artaud

Artaud was an unruly child and spent much of his youth confined in convalescence clinics, where he was first introduced to laudanum, triggering life-long addictions to a vast range of drugs. In 1920, he wrote his first collections of poetry and began to work as a theatre and then film actor; in 1924, he joined the Surrealist movement and was director of its research bureau before being expelled in 1926 in a dispute about the nature of revolution. During the whole of the 1920s and 30s he was associated with various experimental theater groups in Paris, and he cofounded the Théâtre Alfred Jarry. Artaud's theories of drama, particularly his concept of the "theater of cruelty," greatly influenced 20th-century theater. He related theater to the plague because both destroy the the thin layer  of civilization, revealing the ugly realities beneath and returning humanity to a primitive state, in which it lacks morality and reason. The aim of the "theater of cruelty" was to disturb the audience and reveal the forces of nature. To achieve this end he emphasized the nonverbal aspects of theater such as color and movement and stressed the importance of violence as a theatrical device. Artaud was afflicted with mental illness from his childhood, and in 1936 he was declared insane; he spent much of the rest of his life in mental institutions.

Quotes from peers about our 5 minute production of 4.48 psychosis.

" It was awkward to watch, and provided an interesting take on Artuad's style. i particularly liked the use of sound and persona of the characters within the play"

" it was creepy and captured Artaud's beleifs well"

" It is clear that you have fully understood Artaud's methods and have incorportated these into your own work"

Antonin Artaud

Artaud Research

• "Hell is of this world and there are men who are unhappy escapees from hell, escapees destined ETERNALLY to reenact their escape."
• "Those who live, live off the dead."

Basic Research about Antonin Artaud

1. "When we speak the word "life," it must be understood we are not referring to life as we know it from its surface of fact, but to that fragile, fluctuating center which forms never reach."
2. Acceptance of our own violence, weakness, vulnerability are crucial for the theatre of cruelty performance as you can really express this to the audience to cause discomfort and this will work for our play “ 4.48 Psychosis”.
3. Believed that the audience should feel heightened emotions (theatre of cruelty)
4. Artaud's plays themselves usually have no storyline, but  have many different themes going on at the same time – to confuse and cause discomfort for the audience 

Welcome

I have created this blog for my AS Drama Studies research.