Artaud - Theatre of Cruelty

Monday 16th November

Today was our first introduction to the works of Antonin Artaud, and his theatre of cruelty. Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty is very much based on the idea that actors should be pushed to their limits, in order to expose a truth to the audience that they don't want to see. Artaud disagreed with the way that theatre was being "taken over" by text and speech and so opted for a more physical theatre use of language and gesture.

Arteud was also fascinated by the idea of his so called Total Theatre, a theatre which insults the senses, whilst playing with perception. He believed that theatre should challenge the audience and encourage audience involvement, rather than being a passive experience.

For our introduction to the meaning behind Artaud's idea of pushing his actors to the limits, we took part in an activity involving complete focus. In this activity we paced around the space, aiming to reach a personal goal in our minds, and the only way to reach this goal was by pacing. We could only pace in straight lines taking 90 degree turns with complete control.

I found that during this activity my body went into a sort of "auto-pilot" where my thoughts were fixed on reaching this goal. We spent over 30 minutes on this activity and after which I felt quite exhausted, both physically and mentally. Obviously this was nothing compared to the limits which Artaud would push his actors in order to create the horrors that he wanted to shock and control the audience with.