Artaud, Antonin << ar toh, ahn toh nan >> (1896-1948), was an influential French stage director, actor, critic, and poet. Artaud is best known for the essays published as The Theatre and Its Double (1938). In this book, Artaud advocated what he called the “Theater of Cruelty.” This theory had a strong influence on many major theater figures of the mid-1900’s, including the Spanish playwright Fernando Arrabal, the French playwright Jean Genet, and the British director Peter Brook. Perhaps the fullest expression of the Theater of Cruelty is Brook’s production of the controversial experimental play Marat/Sade (1964) by the German playwright Peter Weiss.
Artaud called for a theater dominated by violence, gesture, and ritual in contrast to the realistic and rational language of the European theater of his time. Artaud wanted to shock audiences by releasing emotions he felt were repressed by conventional society. He believed that his Theater of Cruelty would thus reveal basic human nature to his audiences. In developing his theory of the theater, Artaud was strongly influenced by the dance theater of the East, especially Bali. He was also a follower of the Western art movement called Surrealism and its emphasis on dreams rather than reality. Artaud demanded an intense, rigorous theater free from the domination of playwrights.
Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud was born on Sept. 4, 1896, in Marseilles, France. He was active in the theater and in motion pictures during the 1920’s as an actor and director. Artaud visited the International Colonial Exposition of 1931 in Paris, where he attended performances by the Balinese theater. His exposure to this theater triggered his conception of the Theater of Cruelty.
Artaud suffered from poor health and mental instability throughout his life. He spent 1937 through 1946 in mental institutions. He died on March 4, 1948.
See also Genet, Jean.
