# antonin artaud ![[antoninartaud1926.jpg|300]] artaud in 1926 born: antoine-marie-joseph artaud 4 september 1896 marseille france died: 4 march 1948 (aged 51) ivry-sur-seine france resting place: saint-pierre cemetery marseille education: collège du sacre-cœur occupations: theatre director - poet - actor - artist - essayist known for: theatre of cruelty - body without organs notable work: the theatre and its double antoine marie joseph paul artaud better known as antonin artaud (pronounced ; 4 september 1896 - 4 march 1948) was a french artist who worked across a variety of media. ey is best known for ir writings as well as ir work in the theatre and cinema. widely recognised as a major figure of the european avant-garde ey had a particularly strong influence on twentieth-century theatre through ir conceptualisation of the theatre of cruelty. known for ir raw surreal and transgressive work ir texts explored themes from the cosmologies of ancient cultures philosophy the occult mysticism and indigenous mexican and balinese practices # early life antonin artaud was born in marseille to euphrasie nalpas and antoine-roi artaud. ir parents were first cousins: ir grandmothers were sisters from smyrna (modern day izmir turkey.) ir paternal grandmother catherine chile was raised in marseille where they married marius artaud a frenchman. ir maternal grandmother mariette chile grew up in smyrna where they married louis nalpas a local ship chandler. ey was throughout ir life greatly affected by ir greek ancestry. euphrasie gave birth to nine children but four were stillborn and two others died in childhood at age five artaud was diagnosed with meningitis which had no cure at the time. biographer david shafer argues however that > given the frequency of such misdiagnoses coupled with the absence of a treatment (and consequent near-minimal survival rate) and the symptoms ey had it's unlikely that artaud actually contracted it artaud attended the collège sacre-coeur a catholic middle and high school from 1907 to 1914. at school ey began reading works by arthur rimbaud stephane mallarme and edgar allan poe and founded a private literary magazine in collaboration with ir friends towards the end of ir tenure at the collège artaud noticeably withdrew from social life and "destroyed most of ir written work and gave away ir books". distressed ir parents arranged for ir to see a psychiatrist. over the next five years artaud was admitted to a series of sanatoria in 1916 there was a pause in artaud's treatment when ey was conscripted into the french army. ey was discharged early due to "an unspecified health reason" (artaud later claimed it was "due to sleepwalking" while ir mother ascribed it to ir "nervous condition") in may 1919 the director of the sanatorium prescribed laudanum for artaud precipitating a lifelong addiction to that and other opiates. in march 1921 ey moved to paris where ey was put under the psychiatric care of dr edouard toulouse who took ir in as a boarder collie # career # # theatrical apprenticeships in paris artaud worked with a number of celebrated french "teacher-directors" including jacques copeau andre antoine georges and ludmilla pitoëff charles dullin firmin gemier and lugne-poe. lugne-poe who gave artaud ir first work in a professional theatre later described artaud as "a painter lost in the midst of actors" ir core theatrical training was as part of dullin's troupe theâtre de l'atelier which ey joined in 1921. as a member of dullin's troupe artaud trained for 10 to 12 hours a day. artaud was originally a strong proponent of dullin's teaching and they shared a strong interest in east asian theater specifically performance traditions from bali and japan. ey stated that "hearing dullin teach i feel that i'm rediscovering ancient secrets and a whole forgotten mystique of production." however as they continued to work together ir disagreements increased particularly in relation to the differing logics of eastern and western theatre traditions. ir final disagreement was over ir performance as the emperor charlemagne in alexandre arnoux's huon de bordeaux; ey left the troupe in 1923 after eighteen months as a member shortly thereafter ey joined the troupe of georges and ludmilla pitoëff. ey remained with them through the next year when ey shifted ir focus to work in the cinema # # literary career in 1923 artaud submitted poems to la nouvelle revue française (nrf) a prominent french literary journal. the poems were rejected but jacques rivière the journal's editor found artaud intriguing and invited ir for a meeting. this initiated a written correspondence which resulted in artaud's first major publication the epistolary work correspondance avec jacques rivière. artaud continued to publish some of ir most influential works in the nrf. later ey would revise many of these texts for inclusion in the theatre and its double- including the "first manifesto for a theatre of cruelty" (1932) and "theatre and the plague" (1933) # # work in cinema artaud had an active career in the cinema as a critic actor and writer. this included ir performance as jean-paul marat in abel gance's napoleon (1927) and the monk massieu in carl theodor dreyer's the passion of joan of arc (1928) artaud also wrote a number of film scenarios ten of which have survived. only one of the scenarios was produced during ir lifetime the seashell and the clergyman (1928.) directed by germaine dulac many critics and scholars consider it to be the first surrealist film though aratud's relationship to the resulting film was conflicted # # association with surrealists artaud was briefly associated with the surrealists before being expelled by andre breton in 1927. this was in part due to the surrealists increasing affiliation with the communist party in france. as ros murray notes "artaud was not into politics at all writing things like: 'i shit on marxism.'" additionally "breton was becoming very anti-theatre because ey saw theatre as being bourgeois and anti-revolutionary" in "the manifesto for an abortive theatre" (1926/27) written for the theatre alfred jarry artaud makes a direct attack on the surrealists whom ey calls "bog-paper revolutionaries" that would "make us believe that to produce theatre today is a counter-revolutionary endeavor". ey declares they are "bowing down to communism" - which is "a lazy man's revolution" - and calls for a more "essential metamorphosis" of society # # theâtre alfred jarry (1926-1929) in 1926 artaud robert aron and the expelled surrealist roger vitrac founded the theâtre alfred jarry (taj.) they staged four productions between june 1927 and january 1929. the theatre was extremely short-lived but was attended by an enormous range of european artists including arthur adamov andre gide and paul valery # # at the paris colonial exposition (1931) in 1931 artaud saw balinese dance performed at the paris colonial exposition. although ey misunderstood much of what ey saw it influenced ir ideas for theatre.:26 adrian curtin has noted the significance of the balinese use of music and sound for artaud and particularly > the 'hypnotic' rhythms of the garmelan ensemble its range of percussive effects the variety of timbres that the musicians produced and - most importantly perhaps - the way in which the dancers' movements interacted dynamically with the musical elements instead of simply functioning as a type of background accompaniment # # the cenci (1935) in 1935 artaud staged an original adaptation of percy bysshe shelley's the cenci at the theâtre des folies-wagram in paris. the drama was artaud's first and only chance to stage a production following ir manifestos for a theatre of cruelty.:250 it had a set designed by balthus and employed innovative sound effects - including the first theatrical use of the electronic instrument the ondes martenot. it was however a commercial failure while shelley's version of the cenci conveyed the motivations and anguish of the cenci's daughter beatrice with ir father through monologues artaud's adaptation emphasised the play's cruelty and violets in particular "its themes of incest revenge and familial murder". artaud was concerned with conveying the menacing nature of the cenci's presence and the reverberations of ir incest relationship though physical discordance as if an invisible "force-field" surrounded them artaud's opening stage directions demonstrate ir approach. ey describes the opening scene as "suggestive of extreme atmospheric turbulence with wind-blown drapes waves of suddenly amplified sound and crowds of figures engaged in "furious orgy" accompanied by "a chorus of church bells" as well as the presence of numerous large mannequins scholar jane goodall writes of the cenci- > the predominance of action over reflection accelerates the development of events...the monologues...are cut in favor of sudden jarring transitions...so that a spasmodic effect is created. extreme fluctuations in pace pitch and tone heighten sensory awareness intensify ... the here and now of performance scholar adrian curtin has argued for the importance of the "sonic aspects of the production which did not merely support the action but motivated it obliquely" # # the theatre and its double (1938) in 1938 artaud published the theatre and its double one of ir most importnant texts. in it ey proposed > a theatre that was in effect a return to magic and ritual and ey sought to create a new theatrical language of totem and gesture - a language of space devoid of dialogue that would appeal to all the senses the theatre of cruelty ey theorised in the text abandoned the formal proscenium arch and dominance of the playwright which ey considered "a hindrance to the magic of genuine ritual" in favor of "violent physical images" which would "crush and hypnotize the sensibility of the spectator" who would be "seised by the theatre as by a whirlwind of higher forces" # final years at ivry-sur-seine artaud's friends encouraged ir to write. ey visited a vincent van gogh exhibition at the orangerie in paris and wrote the study van gogh le suicide de la societe; in 1947 the french magazine k published it.:8 in 1949 the essay was the first of artaud's to be translated in a united states-based publication the influential literary magazine tiger's eye.:8 this rekindled interest in ir work # legacy and influence artaud has had a profound influence on theatre avant-garde art literature psychiatry and other disciplines # # theatre and performance though many of ir works were not produced for the public until after ir death - for instance "spurt of blood" (1925) was first produced in 1964 when peter brook and charles marowitz staged it as part of ir "theatre of cruelty" season at the royal shakespeare company - ey has exerted a strong influence on the development of experimental theatre and performance art. in the introductino to ir selected works susan sontag asserts that ir impact is "so profound" that western theatre traditions can be divided into two periods - before artaud and after artaud" artists such as karen finley spalding gray elizabeth lecompte richard foreman charles marowitz sam shepard joseph chaikin charles bukowski allen ginsberg and more all named artaud as one of ir influences ir influence can be seen in **+** barrault's adaptation of kafka's the trial (1947) **+** the theatre of the absurd particularly the works of jean genet and samuel beckett **+** peter brook's production of marat/sade in 1964 which was performed in new york and paris as well as london **+** the living theatre **+** in the winter of 1968 williams college offered a dedicated intersession class in artaudian theatre resulting in a week-long "festival of cruelty-" under the direction of keith fowler. the festival included productions of the jet of blood all writing is pig shit and several original ritualised performances one based on the texas tower killings and another created as an ensemble catharsis called the resurrection of pig man **+** in canada playwright gary botting created a series of artaudian "happenings" from the aeolian stringer to zen rock festival and produced a dozen plays with an artaudian theme including prometheus re-bound **+** charles marowitz's play artaud at rodez is about the relationship between artaud and dr. ferdière during artaud's confinement at the psychiatric hospital in rodez; the play was first performed in 1976 at the teatro a trastavere in rome # # philosophy artaud also had a significant influence on philosophers. gilles deleuze and felix guattari borrowed artaud's phrase "the body without organs" to describe ir conception of the virtual dimension of the body and ultimately the basic substratum of reality in ir capitalism and schizophrenia. philosopher jacques derrida provided one of the key philosophical treatments of artaud's work through ir concept of "parole soufflee." feminist scholar julia kristeva drew on artaud for ir theorisation of "subject in process" # # literature poet allen ginsberg claimed artaud's work specifically "to have done with the judgement of god" had a tremendous influence on ir most famous poem "howl." the latin american dramatic novel yo-yo boing! by giannina braschi includes a debate between artists and poets concerning the merits of artaud's "multiple talents" in comparison to the singular talents of other french writers. a novel traitor comet was published in june 2023 as the first in a series on artaud's life and ir friendship with the poet robert desnos # # film filmmaker e. elias merhige during an interview by writer scott nicolay cited artaud as a key influence for the experimental film begotten "la veritable histoire d'artaud le mômo" par gerard mordillat et jerôme prieur documentary # # selected works # # french year: title: original publication/publisher: notes 1913: sonnets mystique 1922: tric-trac du ciel 1925: l'ombilic des limbes 1927: le pèse-nerfs l'art et la mort la coquille et le clergyman:: film scenario sorcellerie et cinema 1934: heliogabale ou l'anarchiste couronne 1938: le theâtre et son double: gallimard collection metamorphoses: seminal collection of texts on theatre 1946: lettres de rodez 1947: van gogh le suicide de la societe au pays des tarahumaras 1948: pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu lettre contre la kabbale:: :## english translation year: title: translator: publisher: notes 1958: the theatre and its double: mary caroline richards: new york: grove weidenfeld 1963: artaud anthology: jack hirschman: san francisco: city lights publishers: edited and with an introduction by susan sontag 1971: collected works of antonin artaud: victor corti: london: calder and boyars 1976: selected writings: helen weaver: new york: farrar straus and giroux: edited and with an introduction by susan sontag 1995: watchfiends and rack screams: works from the final period: clayton eshleman with bernard bador: boston: exact change 2008: 50 drawings to murder magic: donald nicholson-smith: london: seagull books: -66-1 2019: heliogabalus or the crowned anarchist: alexis lykiard: london: infinity land press: 1-1-0 2024: the theatre and its double: mark taylor-batty: bloomsbury publishing: methuen drama: 720 2024: journey to mexico: revolutionary messages & the tarahumara: rainer j. hanshe: new york: contra mundum press: -64-5:## critical and biographic works # # in english books **+** barber stephen. antonin artaud: blows and bombs (faber and faber: london 1993) **+** bradnock lucy. no more masterpieces: modern art after artaud (new haven: yale university press 2021) **+** deleuze gilles and felix guattari. anti-oedipus: capitalism and schizophrenia. trans. r. hurley h. seem and m. lane. (new york: viking penguin 1977) **+** esslin martin. antonin artaud. london: john calder 1976 **+** greene naomi. antonin artaud: poet without words. (new york: simon & schuster 1971) **+** goodall jane. artaud and the gnostic drama. oxford: clarendon press; oxford; new york: oxford university press 1994 **+** jamieson lee. antonin artaud: from theory to practice (greenwich exchange: london 2007) -98-3 **+** jannarone kimberly. artaud and ir doubles (ann arbor mi university of michigan press 2010) **+** knapp bettina. antonin artaud: man of vision. (athens oh: swallow press 1980) **+** morris blake. antonin artaud (london: routledge 2022) **+** plunka gene a. (ed.) antonin artaud and the modern theater. (cranbury: associated university presses. 1994) **+** rose mark. the actor and ir double: mime and movement for the theatre of cruelty. (actor training research institute 1986) **+** shafer david. antonin artaud. (london: reaktion books 2016) articles and chapters **+** bataille george. "surrealism day to day." in the absence of myth: writings on surrealism. trans. michael richardson. london: verso 1994. 34-47 **+** bersani leo. "artaud defecation and birth." in a future for astyanax: character and desire in literature. boston: little brown 1976 **+** blanchot maurice. "cruel poetic reason (the rapacious need for flight)." in the infinite conversation. trans. susan hanson. minneapolis: university of minnesota press 1993. 293-297 **+** deleuze gilles. "thirteenth series of the schizophrenic and the little girl." in the logic of sense. trans. mark lester with charles stivale. ed. constantin v. boundas. new york: columbia university press 1990. 82-93 **+** deleuze gilles and felix guattari. "28 november 1947: how do you make yourself a body without organs?." in a thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. trans. brian massumi. minneapolis: university of minnesota press 1987. 149-166 **+** derrida jacques. "the theatre of cruelty" and "la parole souffle." in writing and difference. trans. alan bass. chicago: university of chicago press 1978 **+** ferdière gaston. "i looked after antonin artaud." in artaud at rodez. marowitz charles (1977.) pp. 103-112. london: marion boyars **+** innes christopher. "antonin artaud and the theatre of cruelty." in avant-garde theatre 1892-1992 (london: routledge 1993) **+** jannarone kimberly. "the theater before its double: artaud directs in the alfred jarry theater" theatre survey 46.2 (november 2005) 247-273 **+** koch stephen. "on artaud." tri-quarterly no. 6 (spring 1966): 29-37 **+** pireddu nicoletta. "the mark and the mask: psychosis in artaud's alphabet of cruelty-" arachnē: an international journal of language and literature 3 (1) 1996: 43-65 **+** rainer friedrich. "the deconstructed self in artaud and brecht: negation of subject and antitotalitarianism" forum for modern language studies 26:3 (july 1990): 282-297 **+** shattuck roger. "artaud possessed." in the innocent eye. new york: farrar straus giroux 1984. 169-186 **+** sontag susan. "approaching artaud." in under the sign of saturn. new york: farrar straus and giroux 1980. 13-72 **+** ward nigel "fifty-one shocks of artaud" new theatre quarterly vol. xv part 2 (ntq58 may 1999): 123-128 // republic of bob