Artaud Workshop

Facts about Artaud

- Artaud was 'counter-culture', which means he refused to comply with social norms at the time, causing controversy as a result.

- He was said to be 'ahead of his time', because he was a forward thinker. Unfortunately his plays weren't apprectiated at the time he was alive; it was only after Artaud's death that his work was fully appreciated.

- He suffered from mental illness, (depression for example); he spent the majority of his life in asylums, but ironically his time in asylums stimulated his creativity.

- He was a French Catholic and experienced a love/hate outlook on religion.

- He courted controversy by provoking real problems and often addressed the harsh truth - things that his audience didn't want to hear. By unsettling the audience, his plays were successfully thought-provoking. This was known as 'Theatre of Cruelty'.

Themes included: drink, drugs, sex, disease, death, religion, incest and disease. These themes clashed with one another to create intense theatre. His themes were also very provocative, considering the context, so the content itself often unsettled and surprised the audience.

- He died of an overdose at 51, (1948)

ICONIC = Realism
DEICTIC = Non-realist, response/reaction

Tasks explored in class

 

 

1) "Walk and greet" exercise involved improvisation and exploration of exaggeration levels; we were asked to choose a random person in the room and greet them as though they were an old friend we had not seen in a long while. Naturally, the general reaction was to hug the person and I used upward inflection to communicate my excitement. We were then asked to exaggerate this as much as possible, so the following time, I heightened the volume of my voice and jumped up and down to further exaggerate this excitement. I widened my face and used large hand gestures to melodramatise the scene. We were then asked to repeat this, but without using dialogue. This was challenging, as we could only use our physicality to communicate a narrative. To do so, I heightened my physicality and put my hands over my mouth to show shock, and then jumped around with Lady Pearl to show our disbelief and happiness. We had to repeat this task with a friend we had seen recently, (so naturally our physicality was less excitable), and also for an enemy. To communicate a negative relationship between myself and Nathan, I folded my arms and avoided eye contact as much as possible. I also twiddled my thumbs and shuffled my feet to show how I was uncomfortable and wanted to get away as soon as possible. We also kept a distant proxemic between us so further imply our dislike of one another. 

2) "Ring-of-Roses" exercise required us to interpret the nursery rhyme in a sinister, Artaudian way. To do so, my group lied down in a circle with our feet facing inwards. Whilst slowly humming the nursery rhyme, we raised one arm and used this to manoeuvre ourselves so that we were sitting up looking at the person opposite. From here, we stood up and placed one hand into the middle, we continued by circling around, (still humming the rhyme). Suddenly, I coughed - to communicate the contraction of the Plague - and the rest of the group continued. By breaking the circle and coughing near the audience, we were making them feel uncomfortable - as though they were at risk of contracting the disease. By doing so, we were utilizing Artaud's 'Theatre of Cruelty' techniques.  We came back to the centre with our hands in a prayer. We felt that the prayer was significant, as it feeds into Artaud's fascination with religion, but also conveys hope and childishness to communicate that we were children. We finished by using collaboratively delivering the line "we all fall down". I said this with slow pace and low tone, to deliver the line in a sinister and un-nerving way.

3) "Plague" exercise focused on instinct and being aware of those around you; we were asked to lay in a circle and collectively hum a note until it naturally faded out. After this, we would have to suddenly gasp and sit up, (as if we had awoken from a bad dream) - this part was challenging as it replied on impulse and for us to work collaboratively as a class to instinctively decide the right time to jump up. We then had to discover that we had a rash all over our bodies, but eventually it began to fade away and we went back to sleep. The exercise was interesting as it tested our collaborative skills, but also our ability to listen and use our senses to detect when to move.

4) "Symbolism" exercise required our creativity as a lone performer; we had to perform an iconic death, followed by an iconic eyewitness, and then a deictic, (symbolic) death. To perform the deictic death, I opened my arms wide and looked at the ceiling, (to communicate spirit and freedom), but then curled into a ball to portray how that person no longer exists. The exercise made me think deeper into the meaning of what I was performing, rather than how I can communicate it easily and clearly. Symbolic performance can often be more interesting and provoke more feeling than a iconic performance. This also linked to Artaud's theme of death, which was common throughout many of his plays.