Antonin Artaud

1. Theatre of Cruelty

1.1. He wanted to awaken “dormant minds” and to appeal to the irrational side of the mind - this was not condoned by the current society

1.2. He wanted to overwhelm the audience's senses

1.3. Using tone and mood to influence the audience

1.4. The idea that the theatre and real life are doubles- like two sides to the same coin.

1.5. Seen as a mirror to the reality of the extraordinary.

2. Themes of Artaud's work

2.1. religion

2.2. love

2.3. sex

2.4. women-especially they're power and the power used over them

2.5. power

2.6. sin

2.7. violence

2.8. shocking actions

3. A Jet of Blood

3.1. also known as A Spurt Of Blood

3.2. has religious context

3.3. looks at the concept of a wrath of nature

3.4. the idea that god punishing for blasphemy

3.5. the idea of human transgression against god

3.6. looks at ‘Le mal de ciel’- heaven's sickness

3.7. The strong religious themes were echoing the strong Roman Catholic religion in Paris at this time. As well as exploring the human body and how this influences power in society.

4. Who is he?

4.1. A French dramatist, poet, practitioner, director and actor

4.2. Born born on the 4th of September

4.3. At fourteen: founded and published his own literary magazine

4.4. Worked for armed forces 1916

4.5. Only served on year due to extreme drug addiction and poor mental health

4.6. After his time in a clinic, moved onto work in theatre under famous Charles Dullin

4.7. Lead to work in film, stage and even costume and set design

4.8. Most well known for his development of Theatre of Cruelty

5. What was he influenced by?

5.1. Carl Jung- a psychoanalytic theorist who focused on symbolism, representation and unconscious myth

5.2. His own drug addiction

5.3. Trauma of his time in the war

5.4. Surrealism - this emerged first in Paris and was thought to have begun by a dramatist named Apollinaire- he was a member of the surrealist movement

5.5. His own mental health as he spent a lot of time in asylums

6. Conventions of Theatre of Cruelty

6.1. Utilised improvisation more than scripts

6.2. Gesture and movement was used to create a story on its own.

6.3. Movement used to produce violent and shocking action of stage

6.4. Audience and Stage relationship to be viewed as intimate (sometime even eliminated the stage area and intermingled with the audience)

6.5. Actors would be openly emotional if needed to be- unlike epic theatre

6.6. No emphasis on individual characters

6.7. Movement and gesture could be used to replace words

6.8. Often pieces were left up to the interpretation of the audience- in order to awake their ‘dormant mind.’