Antonin Artaud and the theatre of cruelty

Bettina L. Knapp

pp. 78-91

in: Brian Docherty (ed), Twentieth-century European drama, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1994

Abstract

"A true theatrical work disturbs the senses in repose, liberates the repressed unconscious, foments a virtual revolt … and imposes both a heroic and difficult attitude on the assembled collectivity."¹ So wrote Antonin Artaud in 1933. The father of the revolutionary theatre of cruelty, Artaud wanted to do away with the traditional theatre, whose nuclear elements were words, well-made plots, psychologically oriented and rationally understandable characters.

Cited authors

Artaud Antonin