With Oliver Folaranmi & Rhys Marks Youth Wave Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud 4th September 1896 Marseille, France 4 March 1948 aged 51 due to Intestinal Cancer Paris, France French Studied at the Sacred Heart College Theatre Director, Poet, Actor, Artist, Essayist Theatre Cruelty With Oliver Folaranmi & Rhys Marks Youth Wave

Theatre of Cruelty Antonin Artaud was a member of the surrealist movement in Paris during the 1920s, and was well known as an essayist of avant-garde theatre. Much of the avant-garde theatre developed in France from 1914-1939 can be seen as a revolt against tradition. Deeply affected by the events of World War One, the artist movement felt increasing their disbelief of the existing societal structures that had allowed for global warfare. The Theatre of Cruelty is a method of theatre developed by Antonin Artaud, in ‘The Theatre and its Double.’ Originally a member of the surrealist movement, Artaud eventually began to develop his own theatrical theories. This style of theatre is largely movement-based, Theatre of Cruelty aimed to shock the senses of its audience, sometimes using violent and confronting images that appealed to the emotions. Text was given a reduced in Artaud’s theatre, as dance and gesture became just as powerful than the spoken word.

Theatre of Cruelty In his writings on the Theatre of Cruelty, Artaud points to definitions of both “theatre” and “cruelty” that are separate from their colloquial meanings. For Artaud, theatre does not merely refer to a staged performance before a passive audience. The theatre is a practice, which “wakes us up. Nerves and heart,” and through which we experience, “immediate violent action.” Similarly, cruelty does not refer to an act of emotional or physical violence. According to scholar Nathan Gorelick, “Cruelty is, more profoundly, the unrelenting agitation of a life that has become unnecessary, lazy, or removed from a compelling force. The Theatre of Cruelty gives expression to everything that is ‘crime, love, war, or madness’ in order to ‘unforgettably root within us the ideas of perpetual conflict,

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