Artaud, Antonin (äNtônăN` ärtō`), 1896–1948, French poet, actor, and director. During the 1920s and 30s he was associated with various experimental theater groups in Paris, and he cofounded the Théâtre Alfred Jarry. Artaud's theories of drama, particularly his concept of the "theater of cruelty," greatly influenced 20th-century theater. He related theater to the plague because both destroy the veneer of civilization, revealing the ugly realities beneath and returning humanity to a primitive state, in which it lacks morality and reason. The aim of the "theater of cruelty" was to disturb the audience and reveal the forces of nature. To achieve this end he emphasized the nonverbal aspects of theater such as color and movement and stressed the importance of violence as a theatrical device. Artaud's most important work is Le Théâtre et son double (1938, tr. 1958). His influence can be seen in the works of Jean Genet Genet, Jean (zhäN zhənā`), 1910–86, French dramatist.
..... Click the link for more information. , Fernando Arrabal Arrabal, Fernando (fārnän`dō äräbäl`), 1932–, French playwright, b. Melilla, Morocco.
..... Click the link for more information. , Peter Weiss Weiss, Peter (pā`tər vīs), 1916–82, German-Swedish dramatist, novelist, film director, and painter.
..... Click the link for more information. , Peter Brook Brook, Peter, 1925–, English theatrical director, b. London. An innovative, unconventional, and controversial figure, Brook mounts energetic productions in which the entire stage is utilized and realistic sets are banished in favor of bold, abstract, and
..... Click the link for more information. , and Julian Beck Judith Malina, 1926–, also an American theatrical director, actor, and producer, b. Germany. Together they founded the Living Theater in 1947, which inaugurated the off-off Broadway movement.
..... Click the link for more information. and Judith Malina. Artaud was afflicted with mental illness from his childhood, and in 1936 he was declared insane; he spent much of the rest of his life in mental institutions.

Bibliography

See his Selected Writings ed. by S. Sontag (1971); B. L. Knapp, Antonin Artaud: Man of Vision (1980); J. Derrida and P. Thevenin, Antoine Artaud: Drawings and Portraits (1990).

Artaud, Antonin

Artaud, 1948

(credit: Denise Colomb-J.P. Ziolo)

(born Sept. 4, 1896, Marseille, France—died March 4, 1948, Ivry-sur-Seine) French poet, actor, and drama theorist. He wrote Surrealist poetry from 1925 and made his acting debut in Surrealist productions in Paris. He described his theory of drama in the Manifesto of the Theatre of Cruelty (1932; see Theatre of Cruelty) and The Theatre and Its Double (1938). His own plays (including Les Cenci, 1935) were failures, but his theories exerted great influence on playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd. Lifelong mental illness confined him periodically to asylums from 1936.