Artaud, Antoine-Marie-Joseph

(1896-1948)

(Antonine)

   writer

   Born in Marseille, Antoine-Marie-Joseph Artaud, or Antonine Artaud, as he was known, whose work influenced the development of experimental theater, was for a time part of a surrealist group of artists (L'Ombilic des limbes, 1925; Le Pèse-Nerfs, 1925), but soon left and turned toward theatrical writings. A founder, with roger vitrac, of the Theatre Alfred Jarry, Artaud wrote, between 1931 and 1935, a collection of essays, Le Théâtre et son double (1938), which is the basis for the concepts of modern theater direction (theater of the absurd, ensemble theater, environmental and virtual theater). Meanwhile, his early play, Les Cenci (1935), was not a success. His most significant works remain his Lettres de Rode (published 1946), written in a psychiatric hospital, where his friends had committed him because of his mental illness, and his correspondences (Artaud le Mômo, 1947; Van Gogh ou le suicidé de la société, 1947; and Les Tarahumaras, posthumous, 1955), at once poems and firsthand accounts. Artaud developed the concept of "the theater of cruelty" — a term he used to define a new theater that minimized the spoken word, relying instead on a combination of physicality, gestures, nonspecific sound, and elimination of spatiality, forcing the audience to confront instead their inner primal self. Because of lifelong mental and physical illness, Artaud was unable to implement his theories. He was equally known as a film actor, notably in Faits divers (1923); abel gance's Napoléon (1927), and Passion de Jeanne d'Arc by dreyer (1928). His other writings include Correspondence avec Jacques Rivière (published 1927) and the text of a controversial radio broadcast, Pour en finir avec le judgement de dieu (1948).