An outline of Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty
1. Artaud had a pessimistic view of the world, but he believed that theatre could affect change.
2. Remove the audience from the everyday and use symbolic objects to work with the emotions and soul of the audience.
3. Attack the audience's senses through an array of technical methods and acting so that the audience would be brought out of
their desensitization and have to confront themselves.
4. Use the grotesque, the ugly and pain in order to confront an audience, thereby being cruel to them.

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

In his book Theatre and its Double, Artaud expressed his admiration for Eastern forms of theatre, particularly the Balinese Theatre. He admired Eastern theatre because of the codified, highly ritualized physicality of Balinese dance performance, and advocated what he called a "Theatre 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 theatre made up of a unique language halfway-between thought and gesture. He also believed that sexual activity, including masturbation, was harmful to the creative process and should be avoided if one hoped to achieve purity in one's art.

Antonin Artaud described the spiritual in physical terms, and believed that all expression is physical expression in space. Although he advocated a system of "social therapy" through theatre, Artaud was institutionalized for some time because he was considered insane.

"The Theatre of Cruelty has been created in order to restore to the theatre a passionate and convulsive conception of life, and it is in this sense of violent rigour and extreme condensation of scenic elements that the cruelty on which it is based must be understood. This cruelty, which will be bloody when necessary but not systematically so, can thus be identified with a kind of severe moral purity which is not afraid to pay life the price it must be paid." —Antonin Artaud, The Theatre of Cruelty, in The Theory of the Modern Stage (ed. Eric Bentley), Penguin, 1968, p.66

Antoine Marie Joseph Maud was born in Marseille on September 4th, 1896. He died in Paris in 1948. Antonin is a diminutive form of Antoine (little Anthony), and was among a long list of names which Artaud went by throughout his life. Although his mother had many children, only Antoine, his brother and his sister survived infancy. At the age of four, Antonin had a severe attack of meningrtis. Tne virus gave Antonin a nervous, irritable temperament throughout adolescence, He also suffered from neuralga, stammering and severe bouts of depression. Artaud's parents arranged a long series of sanatorium stays for their disruptive son, which were both prolonged and expensive. They lasted five years, with a break of two months, June and July 1916, when Artaud was conscripted into the amy. He was discharged due to his self-induced habit of sleepwalking. During Artaud's "rest cures" at the sanatorium he read Rimbaud, Baudelaire and Poe. h May 1919 the director of the sanatorium, Dr. Dardel, perscribed opium for Artaud, precipitating a lifelong addiction to that and other drugs. In March 1920 Artaud moved to Paris. In November 1926 Artaud was expelled From the surreaiist movement and also wrote his manifesto titled Manifesto for an Abortive Theatre.

Artaud cultivated a great interest in cinema as weI1, working in films such as Abel Gance's. Napoleon in the role of Jean Paul Marat and Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc as the monk Jean Massieu. Artaud's portrayal of Marat is a perfect example of melodrama in silent film. He used exaggerated movements to convey the fire of Marat's personality, a technique that he would employ later in the Theatre and its Double, as well as in his adaptation of The Cenci.

The 1930's saw the publication of The Theatre and its Double, as well as the release of Artaud's only theatrical production: The Cenci, The Cenci was a commercial failure as the audience did not respond favorably to his Theatre of Cruelty. The production featured an odd assortment of sound effects and at one performance, Artaud played Count Cenci as a dog, coming on stage on all fours, barking his lines. After the production failed, Artaud received a grant to travel to Mexico where he was a guest lecturer. He also studied the Tarahurnara and experimented with the drug peyote, recording his experiences which were later released in a volume called "The Peyote Dance."

The content of this work closely resembles the poems of his later days, concerned primarily with the supernatural. Some of the events portrayed in the book and movie Altered States seem to be based on this period of Artaud's studies; the protagonist visits a tribe of isolated Mexican Indians and participates in their sacred ritual involving local hallucinogens for the purpose of investigating the common religious experience.

In 1937, Ateaud returned to France where he obtained a walking stick of knotted wood that he believed belonged to St. Patrick. Artaud sought to return the staff to the Irish. It must be noted that he spoke very little English and he was unable to make himself understood. The majority of his trip was spent in a hotel room that he was unable to pay for. On the return trip from Ireland, Artaud was arrested and put in a straight-jacket.

The return from Ireland brought about the beginning of the final phase of Artaud's life, which was spent in different asylums. When France was occupied by the Nazis, friends of Artaud had him transferred to the Psychiatric hospital in Rodez, well inside Vichy territory, where he was put under the charge of Dr.Gaston Ferdiere. Ferdiere began administering electroshock treatments to eliminate Artaud's symptoms. Treatments included crafting spells and drawing disturbing images. The treatments were ultimately not helpful. In 1946, Ferdiere released Artaud to his friends, who placed him in the psychiatric clinic at Ivry-sur-Seine.

Artaud was encouraged to write by his fiends and interest in his work was rekindled. He recorded Pour en Finir avec le Jugernent de Dieu, a production based on his poem "Artaud le Momo" for French Radio. It was shelved due to the obscene subject matter of the text and general randomness of the cacophony of xylophonic sounds mixed with various percussive elements.

In January of 1948 Artaud was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. On March 4th, 1948, Artaud died—alone in his pavilion, seated at the foot of his bed, holding his shoe. It was suspected that he died from a lethal dose of the drug chloral, although whether or not he took it knowing it was a lethal dose is not known.

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