We studied Artaud in this lesson. Artaud was part of the avant-garde movement. He was reacting against the impressionist painters and naturalism in the theatre. He joined the surrealist movement then publicly distanced himself from them. Despite this, there are signs of influences of surrealism in the theatre of cruelty.
Artaud was a drug addict, he was addicted to Opium, which in those days was a trend. At the age of 40 was declared insane and spent 9 years in a mental institution.
He believed theatre could be used as a means of spiritual an psychological healing. He believed, like Aristotle, in the cathartic value of the theatre. Like Freud, he believed that humans hide within themselves secret, dangerous thoughts, feelings.
Total Theatre.
Like Meyerhold Artaud sought a theatre that utilised all of the elements of the theatre available: acting, stage, lighting, sound and props. He focused on the visual, rather than dialog. He sought to emotionally affect his audience. He had the audience in the centre and the performance going on around them. Movement/Gesture Three types of movement: Naturalistic, Expressionistic, and Ritualistic.
Believed in mixing realistic action with expressive movements that depict the internal world. Used symbolic, exaggerated and distorted gestures gesture in order to communicate psychologically with the audience rather than through words. He liked his human characters to turn into animals, puppets or mechanical beings. We did a breath exercise, wherein we got into three groups and ha to create the breathing sounds of three emotions: fear, anger and happiness. We then watched an Artaud clip of a woman performing.
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