French writer, actor, director, screenwriter Antonin Artaud was born in Paris in 1896. Even as a child, the actor suffered meningitis, which gave complications, and for the rest of his life he was pursued by a mental illness, for which he was repeatedly treated even in psychiatric hospitals. He was addicted to opium and could not overcome this addiction until his death. In 1916 he was drafted into the army, but for health reasons he was commissioned. In 1920 in Paris, the actor begins his activity
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French writer, actor, director, screenwriter Antonin Artaud was born in Paris in 1896. Even as a child, the actor suffered meningitis, which gave complications, and for the rest of his life he was pursued by a mental illness, for which he was repeatedly treated even in psychiatric hospitals. He was addicted to opium and could not overcome this addiction until his death. In 1916 he was drafted into the army, but for health reasons he was commissioned. In 1920 in Paris, the actor begins his activity and until 1930 often starred in quite famous directors, such as Fritz Lang, Abel Hans, Karl Theodor Dreyer, Germain Dulac, Claude Otan-Lara, etc.
But most of his life Antonin devoted to the development of a new direction in theatrical art, such as the "theater of cruelty" or "cruotic theater", in fact being its founder. His views on the theater Arto presented in the collection “Theater and its double”. Theatre in the usual sense was denied by Artaud. According to his plan, it is necessary to destroy random forms and contrast the ordinary dead theater with another - living, while revealing the essence of existence and demonstrating the theater and its "double", which is a real, authentic theater.
“Cruelty” Artaud does not understand in the ordinary sense. “Cruelty” is the conscious submission of necessity; goodness is the same cruelty for which efforts are made.
In the theater, the actor, according to Artaud, should leave the “personal” beginning and merge with the world. The actor must build his game on memories and on recreations of paintings that were previously reality. At the same time, the viewer in the play, as it were, also becomes an accomplice, and does not remain just a spectator.
Artaud’s work was also influenced by his journey to Mexico, where he performed rituals and ceremonies with the Indians, and to Ireland to learn the teachings of the Druids, which was reflected in the New Revelations of Genesis.
In the second half of the 20th century, many directors used the idea of cruelty in their work. – Peter Brook