Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud (September 4, 1896 - March 4, 1948) was a playwright, actor, and director.

In his book Theater and its Double, Artaud expressed his admiration for Eastern forms of theater, particularly the Balinese Theater. He admired Eastern theater because of the codified, highly ritualized physicality of Balinese dance performance., and advocated what he caled a "Theater of Cruelty". By cruelty, he meant not sadism or causing pain, but rather a violent, physical determination to shatter the false reality which, he said, lies like a shroud over our perceptions. He believed that text had been a tyrant over meaning, and advocated, instead, for a theater made up of a unique language halfway-between thought and gesture. Antonin Artaud described the spiritual in physical terms, and believed that all expression is physical expression in space. Artaud was institutionalized for some time beause he was considered insane.

Selected Works

• The Artaud Anthology published by City Lights Publishers