Video transcript
@The Arts Unit Art Bites – Antonin Artaud – 01. Background and techniques

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SUSAN GELDART: Hi, everyone. My name is Susan Geldart, and I teach at Cronulla High School. Today I'm going to explore the theatre practitioner Antonin Artaud and his Theatre of Cruelty. This goes over two modules. In the first one, I'm going to give you Artaud's background and look at some of his techniques and examples. The second one is where I'm going to set you some activities.

Let's start with some background information. So who was Antonin Artaud?

Antonin Artaud was born in 1896, the same year as Scott Fitzgerald and surrealist Andre Breton. If he were alive today, he would be the grand old age of 124. He was born in the seaside town of Marseilles in the south of France. His father was French and his mother Greek. When Artaud was five years old, he was struck down with meningitis. This is a serious, often fatal illness that causes infection and inflammation in the brain. Back in those times, medicine was nowhere near as effective and available as it is these days. If you became sick, your survival rate was pretty much a gamble. However, Artaud recovered from the illness. But unfortunately, his brain had been hugely affected and left him with lifelong bouts of depression, psychosis, and a stammer. Artaud continued to be hounded by sharp pains in his head and the after effects of meningitis. During the attacks, he would be riddled with pain, unable to function at all. He would be left exhausted with constant headaches and dark depression.

In 1914, when Artaud was 18, his parents sent him away to a rest home where he was looked after by nurses with the hope of his condition improving. Part of his treatment included the drug opium, which is derived from the poppy plant. Opium was freely available in those times and highly addictive. Artaud would spend much of his time reading. One of his most inspirational writers was Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote 'The Raven'. You may have seen that episode on 'The Simpsons'.

Here's an activity I'm going to give you to do, to start thinking about the Gothic style of performance that influenced Artaud. I'd like you to watch the following short animation of 'The Raven' and make some mental notes about your initial reactions. Think about the elements of drama, tone, mood, atmosphere in particular.

[video playback 'The Raven']

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What do you think might influence someone to create artistic work with such a dark Gothic edge? Hold on to your thoughts because we'll come back to this clip and your thoughts in part 2 of this topic.

Back to the rest home and Artaud. Artaud remained in the rest home for a number of weeks. And before long, as one would expect, Artaud became addicted to opium. Not a good thing. By the age of 20, Artaud addicted to opium was conscripted to the French army.

But you can only imagine the difficulties existing with a strict army regime compounded by depression, pain, and heavy doses of opium. Consequently, he was kicked out on the grounds of mental instability and drug addiction.

Artaud had also become a chronice sleepwalker.

He lasted less than a year in the army. Following this, Artaud checked himself into a sanatorium in Switzerland. He travelled around a bit at that stage still only in his early 20s. One such trip was a visit to Ireland where he was deported back to France in a straitjacket due to a frenzied psychotic event. By this time, not only was he self medicating opium, he was also receiving shock treatment to his brain.

Artaud settled in Paris where he could mix with other writers and artists and poets. Think 'Midnight in Paris' and the likes of Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, and Scott Fitzgerald.

Uninspired by convention and normality, it wasn't long before Artaud met Charles Dullin, an actor and director. Dullin's philosophy and techniques were also a little bit off the beaten track, and Artaud instantly formed a connection.

Dullin took Artaud under his professional wing, and through this, Artaud was guided into the world of theatre rather than his intended writing career. He started to get work as an actor on stage and screen, also worked in set and costume design.

Now, remembering that Antonin was still addicted to opium combined with his newfound love of theatre, he started to become curious about the surrealist movement. What is this? Surrealism aimed to revolutionise the human experience.

Surrealists rejected the rational vision of life and instead embraced the world of the unconscious and dreams. The movement's poets and artists found magic and strange beauty in the unexpected. Surrealists disregarded the conventional norms of society and life as a whole.

If you've studied visual art, you may know that the surrealist art movement was founded by Andre Breton and included artists such as Salvador Dali. And through Artaud's experiences and connections in the theatre, he went on to become the founder of avant garde theatre. You may have heard of the term 'avant garde' in the context of something being a bit out there. It means something experimental, different, fresh, or new.

The idea was to challenge the normal way of thinking and open up to abstract ideas and perceptions. With this, Artaud believed that theatre should be highly physical and symbolic. Forget about words. Words were unimportant. Meaning could be created through the vision of movement and symbolism and costume and mask. There was no place for wordy realism. Artaud's style of theatre was built on vision and sensory experiences.

Eventually, with his mind drenched by depression and opiates, Artaud pioneered the Theatre of Cruelty. Sounds painful, doesn't it? But we'll get to that soon. Artaud was heavily influenced by a piece of Balinese theatre he saw in Paris in 1931. He was fascinated by the way gesture and facial expression was used almost as a human projection onto the audience.

Balinese theatre does include dialogue, but Artaud became obsessed by the insignificance of words. He was mesmerised by the actor's movement, gesture, and expression. He was fascinated by the communication of unconscious intention. Watch this video, and you'll see an example of Balinese theatre.

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The Theatre of Cruelty isn't about being sadistic or masochistic. It was derived from Artaud wanting to present reality, but his reality. He wanted to challenge the traditional fictional niceness of theatre that audiences had been used to, where characters are placed in a world in which people were familiar and comfortable and could relate to.

Artaud's reality was very much placed in his head, in a mind that was riddled with hallucinations brought on through opium addiction and mental illness and vivid dreams. To Artaud, the world was cruel and full of instability and darkness. He wanted audiences to be exposed to and challenged by the deepest crevices of the human mind. So what are the conventions of theatre of cruelty, you may ask? Well, here they are.

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Performance space-- the traditional theatre space of that era consisted of the proscenium arch stage. Artaud believed that the arches were cumbersome and got in the way. They killed the magic and mythical ambiance of theatre by placing audiences behind a fourth wall.

This would act as a barrier to the experiential nature of his work. And audiences wouldn't be able to absorb the shocking and violent imagery of his world. He demanded a highly sensory and emotional reaction to his work, which worked much better within the intimacy of a smaller space.

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Lighting and audio elements-- these were essential in blasting out audience reaction. Imagine having piercing, distorted sound effects and blinding light forced on you as an audience member. Not something conducive to a good night's sleep after a trip to the theatre.

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Movement, gesture, symbols, and exaggerated facial expressions-- Theatre of Cruelty presented a full sensory experience without the use of dialogue. Work could be largely devised through collaboration, very often based on dreams and the psychedelic reaction to drugs, typically opiates. Words were unimportant.

Being in the audience experiencing this theatrical style was like lucid dreaming. You would have some sort of control over what you were experiencing, but it would still seem unpredictable and surreal.

If you think about some of your most vivid dreams, if you can remember them, everything seems to slow down. The pace is slow. Faces often don't seem real. You know who they are, but there may be some distortion. The setting and time period is often not clear.

How often have you said something to your friends like, I had this dream last night. You were in it, but it wasn't really you. Your face was different. You seemed distant. And your voice was different, but it was you. This is a manifestation of our unconscious mind. Fortunately, it's always reassuring to wake up after these sorts of dreams.

In a moment, I'm going to give you the opportunity to experiment with this style of theatre, which may also lead you into some ideas for devising your own Theatre of Cruelty work. But first, I'm going to give you an example of what Theatre of Cruelty actually looks like in performance. Watch this video to illustrate the conventions of Artaud's theatre of cruelty.

In the clip, we see a contemporary interpretation of Ophelia's descent into madness from the play 'Hamlet'. As you watch, note the distortion of sound, lighting, and facial expression. How does it make you feel as an audience member? Make some notes which you could use to inform your ideas about devising in this style of theatre.

[video playback 'Five Truths: Antonin Artaud' National Theatre]

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Now it's your turn. Remember 'The Raven'? I'd like you to watch one more time and think about devising your version of 'The Raven'. Have a play with the distortion of sound. See if you can create a sense of the grotesque. Think about your facial expression and movements. Play around with the space you are working in.

In 'The Raven', Poe uses metaphor to reflect the dark tone. For example, the raven's fiery eyes were associated with fire. What could you come up with for, 'suddenly there came a tapping, a someone gently rapping'? You could use the clip as a soundtrack for your work, or create your own soundscapes. Give it a go and see what you come up with.

But remember, that drama is all about experimenting with ideas and learning from your experiences. You'll learn much more about this theatre style by trying it out rather than just listening.

Good luck, and make sure you watch the next episode where we explore some more practical activities on Artaud. Thanks for watching.

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