Antonin Artaud

In his essay “No More Masterpieces,” Artaud proposes the idea of a “theatre of cruelty (p. 1689);” a theatre that would “treat the spectators like the snakechamer’s subjects and conduct them by means of their organisms to an apprehension of the subtlest notions (p. 1689).”

I really like this idea of a “visceral” theatre. Watching a show and experiencing a show are two completely different things; this is a main concept behind Artaud’s “theatre of cruelty.” He wants the audience to be in the center of the spectacle, and he wants to spectacle itself to be so strong that the audience will literally be shaken to its core. Artaud also says that the sensations that the audience should experience should have a sort of violence to them because “it summons up supernatural images, a bloodstream of images, a bleeding spurt of images in the poet’s head and in the spectator’s as well (p. 1690).”

I think this is possible without blatant violence; One Flea Spare had some pretty visceral moments, such as the orange scene, or the doll-burning scene. Even the close seating helped create the “experience-“ you couldn’t get away from the scenes in front of you.