3/28/13- Antonin Artaud

ANTONIN ARTAUD

• started with surrealists and was too crazy/outrageous for them!
• associated with the Theatre of Cruelty (EX. A Clockwork Orange- aversion therapy)

4 Levels of Appeal

1. Emotional (most common)
2. Intellectual
3. Visceral (connection to the animal urges)
4. Metaphysical (Spiritual/Transcendent)

Visceral- like Baywatch or Psycho (physically attractive or repulsive)

Theatre of Cruelty's purpose: catharsis (just like Aristotle)

Artaud: if you can experience this vicariously then it acts as aversion therapy for audience members

• doesn't work for vengeance- anything that would only perpetuate violence doesn't count

Dracula Antonin Artaud

Artaud

• French actor in silent films; leading man
• severe mental illness- eventually institutionalized
• "The Theatre and Its Double"- collection of his essays
• (Harold Pinter's "One for the Road")
• "The Theatre has been created to drain abscesses collectively"--- VERY famous phrase
• Wrote: "I Cenci" and "The Spurt of Blood"