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The Theatre and Cruelty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2022

Antonin Artaud
Translated by
James O. Morgan
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Extract

A concept of the theatre has been lost. And in direct proportion to the manner in which the theatre limits itself only to allowing us to penetrate into the intimacy of some puppet or to transforming the spectator into a Peeping Tom, it is to be expected that the elite will turn away from it and the crowds will go to the movies, the music halls, or the circuses, in search of violent satisfactions which at least have no false pretenses.

After the wear and tear to which our ensibilities have been subjected, it is certain that, before all, we have need of a theatre that will awaken us: heart and nerves.

The misdeeds of the psychological theatre since Racine have made us unaccustomed to that violent and immediate action which the theatre must possess.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tulane Drama Review , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , May 1958 , pp. 75 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © 1958 The Tulane Drama Review

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Footnotes

*

Translated by James O. Morgan from Le Theatre et son Double, Paris, 1938. With permission of Librarie Gallimard.