Artaud (1896-1948)

Artaud (1896-1948)

1. Objectives

   • Shock the sense of its audience
   • Free the audience from its negativity
     • Appeal to the irrational mind
     • Use of violence
       • Appeal to the emotions
         • Actors to openly use emotion (Opposite of Brecht)
         • Release the emotion of the audience
           • Catharsis
             • Hypnotise the audience
     • Use of confronting images
     • create a largely non-verbal language for the theatre

2. Lighting

   • Spotlight
   • Flood lighting
   • Bright to bombard the senses

3. Use of sound

   • Voice
   • Instrument
   • Recorded
   • piercing

4. Movement and Gesture

   • Communication of stories through "signs"
     • signs- facial expression and movement
   • Stylised Movement
     • Visual poetry
   • Ritualistic movement
   • Avoid stereotypical gestures- one for each emotion
   • Stood for ideas and attitudes of the mind
     • Use of oversized puppetry/ mannequins/ effegies
     • Use of masks
     • Movement
       • Movement created violent or disturbing images on stage
         • images left to occur in mind of audience
     • No emphasis on individual performance
   • Dance and gestures
     • as effective as spoken word

5. Audience/ Performance

   • Perform around the audience
     • Audience placed in weaker/ less powerful position
       • Audience in four corners/ four sides of space
         • Placed on swivel chairs
     • Galleries and catwalks to look down on audience
   • Intimate atmosphere

6. Theatre of cruelty

   • Theatre and its double
   • Return of myth and ritual
     • Use of clothing not costume
     • Use of projection
       • Creation of mood
         • No set
   • Mirror the reality of the extraordinary
     • Higher form of reality
     • Extraordinary- A reality not contaminated by ideas of morality and culture
   • Surrealism
     • Enhanced double of real life

7. Text

   • Emphasis on improvisation not script

8. Influences

   • Balinese Dancers
     • Use of gesture and dance