ANTONIN ARTAUD (1896-1948)

ANTONIN ARTAUD (1896-1948)

·          French Actor/Director/Playwright/Poet
·         His Dramatic theories have inspired others
·         Believed theatre must break away from literary connections and become an exorcism in which the audience is frightened/bewitched/spiritually overwhelmed
·         He saw theatre as an instrument of devastating power to free people from moral restraint
·         Believed drama is inside man himself
·         That drama transcends the need to understand language.

ARTAUD and Design:

·         Symbolic
·         ‘other than’
·         ‘Stands for’
·         Mind over matter
·         Things can become completely something else

YouTube Links:

Theatre of Cruelty, Antonin Artaud: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZAYe1HMIYU