Theatre of Cruelty Conventions

Sadly, the French mastermind known as Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) was not always a lucid one. The man who coined the term ‘theatre of cruelty’ spent a significant portion of his later life in asylums, and when on the outside, addicted to opium.

Much of Artaud’s writings on the theatre are difficult to comprehend and his manifestos in ‘The Theatre and Its Double’ are not exactly bedtime reading. Artaud often has less appeal to teachers and students of theatre than other theorists and practitioners because his techniques are not readily translatable. One has to work hard to decipher how Artaud’s concepts for his Theatre of Cruelty become concrete conventions for the stage. But this does not mean we should dismiss Artaud or his influence on 20th century theatre.

A largely movement-based performance style, Theatre of Cruelty aimed to shock the senses of its audience, sometimes using violent and confronting images that appealed to the emotions. Text was given a reduced emphasis in Artaud’s theatre, as dance and gesture became just as powerful as the spoken word. Piercing sound and bright stage lights bombarded the audience during performances.

Artaud experimented with the relationship between performer and audience, preferring to place spectators at the very centre of a performance surrounding them. His intention was to trap the audience inside the drama.

I have recently been working with my Year 12 Drama class on Artaud, scouring numerous texts in order to understand his Theatre of Cruelty techniques in some depth. Our intention is for some students in the class to present the story of Jack the Ripper in this style. Below, I have compiled a categorised list of many of the conventions of the Theatre of Cruelty in the hope that it proves useful for teachers and students.

Theory

• Artaud saw both the world around him and the theatre, itself, in need of change
• he was influenced by Surrealism and at one time was a member of the movement
• his theatre set to awaken the dormant dream images of our minds
• Artaud’s theoretical writings included a series of manifestos on the theatre
• his theoretical essays were published (during his lifetime) in 1938: ‘The Theatre and Its Double’
• reading Artaud’s writings is akin to doing a cryptic crossword puzzle
• his theories were never realised in an accessible form for future generations to interpret easily
• Artaud attempted to appeal to the irrational mind, one not conditioned by society
• there was an appeal to the subconscious, freeing the audience from their negativity
• his theatre could not communicate using spoken language (primary tool of rational thought)
• his was a return to a theatre of myth and ritual
• the Theatre of Cruelty was an enhanced double of real life
• Artaud created ‘doubles’ between the theatre and metaphysics, the plague, and cruelty
• he claimed if the theatre is the double of life, then life is the double of theatre
• his theatre was to mirror not that of everyday life, but the reality of the extraordinary
• this ‘extraordinary’ was a reality not contaminated by ideas of morality and culture
• his art (theatre) should be a double of a higher form of reality
• Artaud’s theatre aimed to appeal to, and release the emotions of, the audience
• mood played an important part in Theatre of Cruelty performances
• by bombarding the audience’s senses, they underwent an emotional release (catharsis)

This is Artaud’s ‘double’: theatre should recall those moments when we wake from dreams unsure whether the dream’s content or the bed we are lying in is our reality (The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance)

Text

• emphasis on the written or spoken text was significantly reduced
• the notion of text being exalted (a more powerful component) was eliminated
• Artaud referred to spoken dialogue as ‘written poetry’
• emphasis on improvisation, not scripts

There can be no spectacle without an element of cruelty as the basis of every show (First Manifesto, Antonin Artaud)

Movement & Gesture

• Artaud was inspired by a performance of Balinese dancers in 1931 (use of gesture and dance)
• Grotowski claimed Artaud’s interpretation of the Balinese dancers was ‘one big mis-reading’
• Artaud wished to create a new (largely non-verbal) language for the theatre
• (ritualistic) movement was a key element (often replacing traditional text/spoken words)
• performers communicated some of their stories through ‘signs’
• ‘signs’ in the Theatre of Cruelty were facial expression and movement
• stylised movement was known as ‘visual poetry’
• dance and gesture became just as effective as the spoken word
• movement and gesture replaced more than words, standing for ideas and attitudes of mind
• movement often created violent or disturbing images on stage
• sometimes the violent images were left to occur in the minds of the audience (not on stage)

We do not intend to do away with dialogue, but to give words something of the significance they have in dreams (First Manifesto, Antonin Artaud)

Space & Actor-Audience Relationship

• Artaud experimented with the actor-audience relationship
• relationship between the actor and audience in the Theatre of Cruelty was intimate
• preference for actors to perform around the audience in the centre (rectangle/ring/boundary)
• he attempted to reduce or eliminate the special space set aside for the actors (the stage)
• Grotowski refuted Artaud’s concept of eliminating the stage area
• performers placed in four corners / on four sides of the space (revolutionary?)
• Grotowski argued Artaud’s use of space was not revolutionary; it had already been attempted
• the audience was therefore placed in a weaker, less powerful position (encircled by actors)
• the audience was often seated on swivel chairs (easily swinging around to follow the action)
• galleries and catwalks enable the performers to look down on the audience (trapping them)

 Stagecraft

• emphasis on light and sound in performances
• sound was often loud, piercing, and hypnotising for the audience
• the audience’s senses were assaulted with movement, light and sound (hence ‘cruelty’)
• music and sound (voice, instrument, recorded) often accompanied stage movement or text
• lighting used a combination of flooded light and pinpointed, more directed light
• using spectacle and sensation, Artaud wanted his theatre to hypnotise its audience
• colour, light and costume added theatrical effect (opposite to Grotowski and Poor Theatre)
• sets were eliminated from performances, (but musical instruments could form part of a ‘set’)
• the Theatre of Cruelty is ‘total theatre’ (full of spectacle)
• Artaud preferred to dismiss modern costumes, employing clothing used for ancient rituals
• some evidence projection and/or film may have been used in Artaud’s performances
• Artaud likened film editing to the juxtaposition between performers’ movements and gestures
• oversized puppets/mannequins/effigies were used to create contrast in size with the actors
• mask was also used on occasions

We intend to do away with stage and auditorium, replacing them by a kind of single, undivided locale without any partitions of any kind and this will become the very scene of the action (First Manifesto, Antonin Artaud)

Acting & Characterisation

• the actor was encouraged to openly use emotions (opposite to Brecht and Epic Theatre)
• no emphasis on individual characters in performance (opposite to Stanislavski and Realism)
• characters were less defined by movement, gesture and dance (compared to spoken dialogue)
• Grotowski warned the Artaudian actor to avoid stereotyped gestures: one for each emotion