Character Profile: Antonin Artaud
Born: September 4th 1896
Died: March 4th 1948
Occupations: Playwright, poet, actor and Theatre director.
Artaud believed in rather than developing on the thought process, to take a step back and go to the instincts we consistently cover up. Through this, one could truly unveil a more dark and gritty side to a character, and ensure that their portrayal of something could be controversial, taboo and unthinkable. Different to Grotowski, Artaud saw light, sound and other devices as very effective as he wished to affect and disturb the audience as much as possible through using a mixture of these.
His creation of Theatre of cruelty was not meant to promote sadistic ideology, but shatter a false reality created through Theatre at that time. With this the actors and audience members would have no choice but to respond with unconscious thoughts that had been shackled through social reasons. From this it would revolve around a dark tone of Theatre. As he believed that in all of us, somewhere deep down, there was a dark part of us that thought of rape, murder, incest etc. With this he felt Theatre was more realistic and carried more power as it was familiar to the darkest form of our self.
" In January 1948, Artaud was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He died shortly afterwards on 4 March 1948, alone in the psychiatric clinic. It was suspected that he died from a lethal dose of the drug chloral hydrate, although it is unknown whether he was aware of its lethality. " - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud
His creation of Theatre of cruelty was not meant to promote sadistic ideology, but shatter a false reality created through Theatre at that time. With this the actors and audience members would have no choice but to respond with unconscious thoughts that had been shackled through social reasons. From this it would revolve around a dark tone of Theatre. As he believed that in all of us, somewhere deep down, there was a dark part of us that thought of rape, murder, incest etc. With this he felt Theatre was more realistic and carried more power as it was familiar to the darkest form of our self.
" In January 1948, Artaud was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He died shortly afterwards on 4 March 1948, alone in the psychiatric clinic. It was suspected that he died from a lethal dose of the drug chloral hydrate, although it is unknown whether he was aware of its lethality. " - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud
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