| LC control no. | sh2013000181 |
|---|---|
| Topical heading | Theater of cruelty |
| Variant(s) | Cruelty, Theater of |
| See also | Theater |
| Found in | Work cat.: 77076510: Bermel, A. Artaud's theatre of cruelty, 1977. 85073269: Rose, M.V. The actor and his double : mime and movement for the theatre of cruelty, 1986. Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (theater of cruelty. A theory of theatrical performance, designed to return theater to its primitive, ritualistic origins. The phrase was coined in the 1920s by the French dramatist Antonin Artaud. Artaud called for a theater that would liberate its audience from the repressive character of modern society, a theater not tied to a script, but one in which spontaneous improvisation would be the dominant mode of presentation. In the 1950s and '60s, Artaud's ideas played a formative role in the development of the Living Theater in the U.S. and in the productions of director Jerzy Grotowski in Poland) Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (theatre of cruelty. This derives from the theories of the French dramatist Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) ... In his view the theatre must disturb the spectator profoundly, pierce him heart and soul in such a way as to free unconscious repressions and oblige men to view themselves as they really are. In it mime, gesture and scenery are more important than words, and the director is a kind of maker of magic ... Artaud's influence has been very considerable ... A recent and well-known example of Théâtre de la cruauté is Weiss's drama The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (1964).) Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (theatre of cruelty. A term introduced by the French actor Antonin Artaud in a series of manifestos in the 1930s. It refers to his projected revolution in drama, whereby the rational 'theatre of psychology' was to be replaced by a more physical and primitive rite intended to shock the audience into an awareness of life's cruelty and violence. The idea, derived party from surrealism, was that the audience should undergo a catharsis through being possessed by a 'plague' or epidemic of irrational responses. Artaud's own attempts to put this theory into dramatic practice failed ... Some later dramatists, though, have developed these principles more successfully: a celebrated instance was Peter Brook's production in 1964 of Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade.) |
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