Practitioner focus: Artaud

For almost nine years of his life Artaud was incarcerated in institutions or undertook periods of voluntary exile. It is little wonder then that during his life he became a silenced voice in the development of theatre. It was only after his death that his ideas came to be recognised. His written records of his work detailed how he saw theatre as a weapon with which to destroy present society. Perhaps he recognised that with this objective his theatre could never be extreme enough to achieve his goal.

Artaud was a man of chaos, making the development of his work difficult to identify in its progression. What is clear is that Artaud's life imitated his art. A man plagued by addiction, he spent his creative life working in isolation; a solitary figure of revolt. He remained uncompromising in taking theatre back to an experience for the senses. Many will recognise the term ‘Theatre of Cruelty,’ which is less to do with murder and torture and more a way to challenge and heighten the spectator's emotional response.

Key features

The Theatre and Its Double by Artaud is a collection of essays and manifestos published in 1938. Within it he identifies various ‘doubles of theatre,’ he has found; these being metaphysics, the plague and cruelty, each one containing key features of his work.

Metaphysics

We can take this as a term to express anything that has no logical explanation. Artaud's use of this term was influences by Balinese Dance, the painting Lot and His Daughters and the Marx Brothers. From these influences he would go on to use the following in his own theatre.

• Dance and gesture: Artaud liked the effect of gesture and facial expression and how they could communicate more than words.
• Simultaneous action: How you can unsettle the spectator through combined moments of calm and chaos.
• Comedy: How laughter can be a liberating force. He saw that through editing, cinema could create strong juxtapositions and he saw potential to do this in the theatre through the use of puppets alongside the actor.

The Plague

Artaud uses the plague as a metaphor of theatre. He is suggesting that theatre should be stripped of conventional constrictions just as a population in the grip of plague would be and that through this there is a freedom and liberation where dreams can become reality.

• A focus on extreme emotion and action
• Releasing dreams and hidden emotions

Cruelty

Through this type of theatre Artaud wanted the spectator to be shaken and on edge in order to place them in a constant state of uncertainty which would ultimately lead to catharsis. In order to achieve this there were a number of elements to his work.

• Actor and audience relationship: With an audience on swivelling seats, Artaud sought to contain the audience in the centre of the space in a sunken area with the performance taking place all around them.
• Sound: This would be played at full volume in order to overwhelm. Music and musical instruments were also a key feature producing, at times, unbearably piercing noise. Sound made by the actors in place of dialogue emphasises the primal communication of emotion.
• Lighting: This could be a physical part of the action, for example strobes and laser lights to distort the space.

Followers

• Peter Brook
• Jerzy Grotowski
• Peter Shaffer
• Steven Berkoff

Exercise: Concrete language

• Pupils stand in a circle. ln turn, each should take a word and communicate that word physically and verbally through sound. For example, the word ‘heavy’ could be shown by lowering the body to the floor showing strain in every muscle. At the same time saying the word with a deep tone and slow pace.
• Have the class walk around the room. As they meet, they should greet one another, not with actual words, but with polite sounds of happiness. Instruct the group that they like everyone in the room. Gradually, the liking starts to turn sour. They begin to realise they don't like each other and this turns into hatred. They should use sound to accompany their actions and expresses the growing strength of their feelings.
• Next, with the group working in pairs, take the following words and express them physically and by using the sound of the word to enhance the meaning: manipulation, recklessness, order, captivity, fussy, thriving, space, trust.
• Now, in small groups, pupils should create a list of words linked to fighting. These words could be weapons or emotions. They should layer the words, sounds and movements to communicate an impression of violence.
• Finally, pupils are going to communicate environment and a sense of place. Working in slightly larger groups pupils think of a location, for example a prison, hospital or school. Consider how the audience can follow the emotion of the space. For example, in a hospital a ‘heart monitor,’ which registers the rhythm of the patient, will lead the audience response as the beeping gets quicker, louder and so on. The words in the scene are not used in a conversational way but used as ways of identifying the place. Layer with movement of the words and sounds of the words to build the scene.