Productions and staging
editArtaud wanted to “abolish the stage and auditorium,” and to do away with sets and props. He envisioned the performance space as an empty room with the audience seated in the center and the actors performing all around them. The stage effects focused on overwhelming sounds and bright lights in order to completely immerse the audience in the theatrical experience.[1]
In his lifetime, Antonin Artaud only produced one play that put the theories of the Theater of Cruelty into practice. He staged and directed Les Censi, adapted from the dramatic work of the same title by Percy Bysshe Shelley, in 1935 at the Théâtre des Folies-Wagram in Paris.[2] The play was neither a commercial or critical success and ran for only 17 performances. Artaud, however, believed that, while he was forced to limit the scope of his vision due to financial constraints, Les Censi succeeded in exemplifying the tenants of the Theater of Cruetly.[2]
According to scholar Pericles Lewis, the influences of the Theatre of Cruelty can most clearly be seen in the works of Jean Genet, a post World War II playwright. His plays featured ritualized murder and oppression in order to show the negative consequences of political subjugation.<ref name=Cambridge>
See also
edit- Theater of Cruelty at the Art & Popular Culture Encyclopedia
- Theater of Cruelty at Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Antonin Artaud at The Poetry Foundation
Theater of Cruelty Bibliography
editBermel, Albert. Artuad’s Theater of Cruelty. New York : Taplinger Pub. Co., 1977. Print.
Brown, Erella. "Cruelty And Affirmation In The Postmodern Theater: Antonin
Artaud And Hanoch Levin." Modern Drama 35.4 (1992): 585-606. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8
- Feb. 2014.
Connick, Rob. "Cruelty And Desire In The Modern Theater: Antonin Artaud,
Sarah Kane, And Samuel Beckett." Comparative Drama 47.1 (2013): 129-132. Academic Search
- Complete. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
Goodall, Jane. "The Plague And Its Power In Artaudian Theatre." Modern Drama 33.4
(1990): 529-542. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
Goux, Jean-Joseph. "Antonin Artaud And The Promise Of A Great Therapeutic."
Angelaki: Journal Of The Theoretical Humanities 13.3 (2008): 17-24.
Academic Search Complete.
- Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
Kubiak, Anthony. Agitate States: Performance in the American Theater of Cruelty.
Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2005.
LaPorte, Julee R. Unforgettable Cruelties: Influence of Antonin Artaud's Theater of
Cruelty on Abla Farhoud's "Jeux de Patience" and Wajdi Mouawad's "Incendies". North Carolina:
- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.
Monje, David. "Force Over Form: Resistance, Method, Theory, And Artaud’S “Theater
Of Cruelty”." Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies 12.3 (2012): 213-219.
Academic Search
- Complete. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
Smigel, Eric. "Recital Hall of Cruelty: Antonin Artaud, David Tudor, and the 1950s
Avant-Garde." Perspectives Of New Music 45.2 (2007): 171-202. Academic Search Complete.
- Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
Vork, Robert. "Things That No One Can Say: The Unspeakable Act In Artaud's Les
Cenci." Modern Drama 56.3 (2013): 306-326. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
- ^ Lewis, Pericles (2007). The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 200.
- ^ a b Vork, Robert (March 13, 2013). "Things That No One Can Say: The Unspeakable Act in Artuad's Les Cenci". Modern Drama. 56 (3): 1.
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