Antonin Artaud's Theatre Of Cruelty

Artist Leonid Afremov was born on July 12, 1955 in Vitebsk, Belarus. He is a Russian-Israeli known for using palette knives to spread oil paint across the canvas. Growing up his parents noticed at a young age that he was gifted in art. In college, Afremov took as many classes as he could that had to do with the subject of art. He also took many private lessons from local famous artist. He became more knowledgeable about many artist such as Picasso, Monet, Dali, and etc. Afremov learned about many art movements. One of the movements that caught his attention was the 19th century French Impressionism. The French Impressionism is based less on detail but driven more by color and brush strokes. He hardly shows his work in galleries

Francois-Marie Arouet spent his life trying out different roles, perfecting his authorial postures and reinvesting the ways he used to engage and speak to his audience. He created the Voltaire; an image that is difficult to separate from his person, even now after over two hundred years. A man with great literacy, he published extensively; fantasy works, from political to religious polemic, and from verse to prose. As a man of the theatre he wrote prolifically plays including opera libretti, comedies and tragedies. He was also a poet, a scientist, a courtier, the Genevan, the campaigner and the greatest celebrity of the 18th century.

Theatre is a complex art that attempts to weave stories of varying degrees of intricacies with the hope that feelings will be elicited from the audience. Samuel Beckett’s most famous work in the theatre world, however, is Waiting for Godot, the play in which, according to well-known Irish critic Vivian Mercier, “nothing happens, twice.” Beckett pioneered many different levels of groundbreaking and avant-garde theatre and had a large influence on the section of the modern idea of presentational theatre as opposed to the representational. His career seemingly marks the end of modernism in theatre and the creation of what is known as the “Theatre of the Absurd.”

Bertolt explored theatre as a forum for political theatre. His perspectives for epic theatre were Marxist and his intention was to present moral problems and reflecting on the social realities. He wanted to do this by hiding the emotions of the character and instead empathizing with the characters and become caught up

Another strong philosophy that LeCoq had was that the actors body was a crucial part of creating dramatic meaning in the theatre- more important than dialogue, He believed it gave the actors a more diversified and a more genuine ability to truly ‘Play’ and explore that which they were performing. Jacques LeCoq had a background in philosophy so he knew the interests of society were expressing our bodies by doing a number of things, such as- Dressing them, decorating them, modifying the shape of them, showing them off and for some people, hiding them. This is where LeCoq found and established his philosophy; that because human beings have such an obsession over their body such as, dieting, physical appearance, age and beauty. His goal was to show these things in the theatre. Jacques LeCoq was a very extravagant and imaginative practitioner, he was renown for this quote- “Be quiet, play and theatre is born.” Play was one of the most important part of his philosophy. LeCoq had a background in physiotherapy, which could of quite possibly sparked his interest in the body, His philosophy focused more on the movement of the body than the actual written script

Doerries diminishes the theater and its patrons by stating “people attend the theater…to feel more intelligent than they actually are” (Freedlander). Doerries appears to be drawing on the audience’s lack of knowledge as a basis to form and direct a conversation using an abstract to accomplish his goal. This is demeaning to a culture that has an understanding of the issues. This article is inflammatory and insults the intellect of the

Jacques Louis David and Alex Katz are both iconic artists with very rich histories.‬ Both artists lived during very desparate time periods. Jacques Louis David is a ‬ French artist. David lived between the 17th and 18th century. David's prime was in ‬ a time period where France made history and started the revolution. As a good ‬ friend of Maximilien Robespierre he had a hefty role in France, he created some of ‬ the most iconic pieces during his prime such as Marat's death, Napoleon crossing ‬ the Alps and his self portrait during the revolution, which I will be discussing ‬ about in this paper.

During the early 1930s, the French dramatist and actor Antonin Artaud put forth a theory for a Surrealist theatre called the Theatre of Cruelty.

The ideas of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1965) changed the theatre in many ways. Brecht along with Erwin Piscator developed the style of Epic theatre style contrasting to previous accepted styles. Presentational in form, Epic theatre is a vehicle for social comment through techniques such as: alienation, historification, eclectic influences (highly Asian), constructivism in scenery, disjointed and illogical scene placement, ordinary clothing and lighting, the use of music to detach the audience from emotion, placards and signs and projected images. Didactic in nature Brecht’s works aim to challenge the

In the words of Gay McAuley, “for an activity to be regarded as a performance, it must involve the live presence of the performers and those witnessing it…” (McAuley, 2009, cited in Schechner, 2013, pp.38). This statement recognises the importance of both the actor and the audience for something to truly function as a performance. In addition, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones highlights the significance of the theatrical space and how it can influence an audience stating that “on entering a theatre of any kind, a spectator walks into a specific space, one that is designed to produce a certain reaction or series of responses” (Llewellyn-Jones, 2002, pp.3). The relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space is no less important today than it was at the time of theatre during the Spanish Golden Age and the creation of Commedia dell’arte in Italy. Despite being very close geographically with theatre thriving for both in the same era, sources that explore the social, cultural and historical context of these countries and the theatre styles will bring to light the similarities and differences. This essay will analyse the staging, the behaviour of the audience as well as the challenges the actors faced, and how this directly influenced the relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space.

An exceptional poem can move the reader to a new consciousness. It becomes more than words pieced together to make a rhyme, and evokes true emotion that is palpable. One of the most influential authors that contributed to this experience was Edgar Allan Poe. His work is almost immediately recognizable due to his common motif that is both melancholy and mysterious. Much of his writing concerns love and loss, such as in his poem “Annabel Lee.” The essence of this work is endless love and the death of a beautiful young girl. It is thought by many that most of his literature mirrors his actual life, which was riddled with heartbreak and sorrow. It is evident from the mood and setting of his writing that he dealt with a lot of

He entered the imperial circle in 1864 as artistic tutor to the Prince Imperial, and executed the boy's bust and full-scale portrait statue for the prince's parents (both mid-1860s, marble; Musée d'Orsay, Paris). He also received some of the most significant monumental commissions of the period: the architectural decoration of the Pavillon de Flore of the Palais du Louvre (1863-1866, Imperial France Enlightening the World and the Triumph of Flora); and The Dance (1865-1869) for the facade of the Paris Opéra. His native Valenciennes commissioned several public projects between 1860 and 1884, including a monument to another of its native artists, Antoine Watteau (1684-1721).

Bertolt Brecht was a German playwright, theatre critic, and director. He created and developed epic theatre with the belief that theatre is not solely for entertainment but also tools for politics and social activism. Previous theatre performances offered a form of escapism. The audience would become emotionally invested in the performance. In contrast to the suspension of disbelief, Brecht never wanted the audience to fall into the performance. He wanted the audience to make judgments on the argument dealt in the play. The aim of epic theatre is to detach the audience from any emotional connection in order for them to critically review the story. The ultimate goal of this theatre is creating awareness of social surroundings and

The Theatre of the Oppressed is a form of theatre that uses a variety of games/exercises that seek to help people and communities to find solutions to problems and create greater harmony within groups. Augusto Boal, a Brazilian director, created it in 1973, however had the inspiration for it during the 1960s when he would invite audience members to stop performances and suggest different actions for the actors to carry out. Legend holds that at one of these performances, a woman was so irritated that the actor could not understand what she meant that she went on the stage and acted it out her self. Thus was born the spect-actor; a term that Boal used to describe audience members who would come on stage and act out the movements as they saw it should be. In doing this, he discovered that audience members had the power to not only imagine change, but also carry it out, creating an ability within them to reflect this idea of change within society and to view theatre not as a spectacle but as a language to be used. He was then exiled to Argentina because of this work, where he wrote his first major text, ‘The Theatre of the Oppressed’. He then moved to Paris where he continued to teach, establishing many Centres for the Theatre of the Oppressed.

Theatre of Cruelty is a theatre practice created by Antonin Artaud. The purpose of this practice is to present real problems and have the audience reflect on how they would act in these given situations. Theatre of Cruelty highlights the lives of those who were tormented as a result of those in power. This leads to audience members walking out and reanalyzing their own lives and actions (Cash). Considering Theatre of Cruelty, Roberto must be imagined because of the final monologue by Paulina and the stage directions that follow. She poses several questions to Roberto, as she reaches the climactic moment of shooting Roberto and asks, “And why does it always have to be people like me who have to sacrifice, why are we the ones who have to make concessions