Theater of cruelty

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The theater of cruelty is a term coined by Antonin Artaud in the middle of the 20th century. It describes a form of theater that has practically never been implemented and is hardly realizable, which does not follow the classic dramatic rules, but aims to make theater a physical, emotional and unique experience for actors and audience. His theory is written down in the compilation Das Theater und seine Double .

History of the development of Das Theater und seine Double

The Artaudian concept of the theater of cruelty developed over a period of several years and was published in 1938 in the volume Das Theater und seine Double . Today, the volume is considered Artaud's standard work.

In 1926 Artaud founded the Alfred Jarry Theater ("Théâtre Alfred Jarry") in Paris together with Robert Aron and Roger Vitrac , which had to be closed again in 1929 after only four productions. The Alfred Jarry Theater can thus be seen as a preliminary stage to Artaud's later concept, since Artaud initially tried to implement his theater here.

In October 1932, The Theater of Cruelty (First Manifesto) appeared in the literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Française . Artaud's language and demands were a scandal in Paris in the 1930s, and the magazine's staff resisted being printed alongside Artaud from then on. The published text was already the 12th or even 15th version: Artaud had worked on the manifesto for a long time and only after various considerations decided on the term 'theater of cruelty ". Alternative names were" alchemical theater "," metaphysical Theater ”and“ Theater of Examination. ”In 1933 the second manifesto for the“ Theater of Cruelty ”was finally published.

Artaud never completely gave up the alternative names for his theater of cruelty. The publication Das Theater und seine Double also contains the chapters The Staging and Metaphysics and The Alchemical Theater . The terms ' alchemy ' and 'metaphysics' can be found in many of Artaud's texts and are part of a conceptual canon that Artaud created in his theoretical work.

Criticism of contemporary theater

The criticism of the Western theater was an essential starting point for Artaud's theater concept. In classical spoken theater, the representation on the stage has been subordinate to the dramatic text since ancient times . Artaud demanded a de-literarization of the theater and thus turned against the spoken theater of his time. To this extent, the idea of ​​the theater of cruelty can be assigned to post-dramatic theater .

"Instead of going back to texts that are seen as final, as sacred, the main thing is to break through the subordination of theater to the text and to rediscover the concept of a kind of language between gesture and thought."

For Artaud, each epoch had to produce its own language which the masses and not just an elitist circle would understand and which corresponded to the needs of the time. His criticism of the text-based drama went hand in hand with the criticism of the psychologized and naturalistic representation on stage, which had the aim of depicting reality and pure entertainment for the audience. Artaud did not blame this fact on the need of the masses for entertainment, rather he accused the playwrights of his time and their admiration for the classical “masterpieces”.

Influences: Surrealism, Balinese Theater & Illness

Before Artaud wrote his manifestos on the theater of cruelty, he was active for a time in the surrealist movement around André Breton , from which he separated due to insurmountable differences. Artaud took over the idea that language could not represent the world objectively from his time with the Surrealists. The criticism of the word as a highly valued expression of mankind was henceforth an essential part of Artaud's theater concept.

A far more important influence was the Balinese theater . In 1931 Artaud attended a performance by a Balinese dance theater group at the Paris Colonial Exhibition. Artaud referred to the actors as "hieroglyphs" and admired the "mathematical accuracy" of their movements. Here he saw for the first time a body-related understanding of theater, which makes the actor the bearer of symbols and thematically falls back on religious myths. When dealing with Artaud's description of the performance, it should be noted that Artaud was not immune to exoticism and hyper-stylization and did not have a deeper understanding of Balinese culture and rituals. In the scientific assessment, it is often overlooked that Artaud has only ever seen one such idea, which also took place in a colonialist context.

Science also overlooks Artaud's personal reference to physicality and 'cruelty'. Throughout his life he suffered from the effects of meningitis , which he had survived as a four-year-old, from chronic neuralgic pain, due to which he consumed drugs such as laudanum , opium and heroin for decades , and from clinical depression. It is difficult to establish a direct connection between Artaud's theories and his physical ailments, but it is clear from his biography and numerous letters that he wrote to friends during a long stay in psychiatry that he spent his life searching for a cure for his Pain from psychoactive drugs, self-awareness and rituals.

Concrete application of the theater of cruelty

Artaud advocated a physical stage play in his texts. Language should not be synonymous with words, but should be understood as an ideographic act (in space): Every movement and every sound made by the stage actors should express its own meaning and no longer just serve to advance or illustrate an action.

In the First Manifesto of his Theater of Cruelty, Artaud wrote concrete instructions for setting up the stage and acting. The drama should "contain a physical, objective element" and, with the help of screaming, rhythm and many other means, produce an experience that the viewer can also feel physically. At Artaud, writer and director should merge into a kind of omnipotent creator who understands the production as his creation. This 'creator' should also find a concrete stage language that should work along catalogable signs, masks, gestures, sounds and effects. Artaud himself did not submit a "sign catalog" for this, but requested it. Musical instruments and other usable objects were to be placed on the stage as decorative elements, whereby Artaud was not concerned with the production of harmonic tones, but with unbearable sounds. The lighting should also leave a viewer so emotional that they can physically perceive their anger and fear. When using costumes, Artaud wanted to fall back on "costumes for ritual use that are thousands of years old".

A particularly important concern for Artaud was the abolition of the stage and auditorium, i.e. the separation of actor and audience. With this change, Artaud wanted to create a "theater of action" and create a direct connection between actor and audience. In the theater of action, the audience should sit in the middle of the theater hall and be played from all sides. He also had certain spatial ideas for the application: For example, "special height and depth proportions should prevail" and the actors should be able to play not only from all sides, but also from an elevated position using galleries. As a specific program, Artaud offered various pieces, literary texts or stories, which, however, were to be staged without regard to the text. These included pieces from Shakespeare time , a piece of Léon-Paul Fargue , an extract from the Zohar , the story of Bluebeard , the conquest of Jerusalem , a story of the Marquis de Sade , melodramas of romance , of Woyzeck by Georg Büchner and works of the Elizabethan Theater.

Implementation of the theater of cruelty

The theater of cruelty is difficult to implement in a theater business. There are several practical reasons for this, but it is mainly characterized by the fact that even Artaud did not present a complete theater concept and contradicts itself in some texts or makes it incomprehensible through the metaphysical language.

In 1935 there was an attempt to put his Theater of Cruelty into practice: the play Le Cenci was premiered in Paris . Artaud based the production of the play on Stendhal's novella and Percy Bysshe Shelley 's drama of the same name. In his play he played the lead role of the cruel father Francesco Cenci. However, his ecstatic play met with incomprehension from the audience and critics and production was stopped after only 17 performances.

Consequences / receptions / misunderstandings with cruelty

Artaud was only received in German-speaking countries after the Second World War. One of the main reasons for this is that his work Theater und seine Double (French: Le théatre et son double ) was not translated into German until 1969. Thus it fell into the time of the emerging performance groups, such as B. living theater , which in the following years are often associated with Artaud. However, during this reception of various performances and happenings that were made in connection with Artaud's theses, there were and often blatant misunderstandings, such as B. also noted Bernd Mattheus in the epilogue of Theater and his double. For example, in 1967 an article appeared in ZEIT in which the living theater was associated with Artaud and his concept of cruelty. Just a few days after this article was published, literary critic Marianne Kesting reacted as follows:

“Artaud is a legendary figure in Germany. It is popularly mentioned, but almost nobody has read it. Correspondingly confused ideas and rumors circulate about his theater. With his term 'theater of cruelty' many bad spells are cast. "

The inadequate connection of Artaud's terminology with the theater group living theater is, however, not an isolated case. Above all, his concept of cruelty was often misused or misunderstood in the reception of various performance artists, since the term cruelty generally evokes the meaning fields of pain, blood or even horror. As a result, for example, performances from the industrial scene, such as B. by SRL, were interpreted in the sense of Artaud. Although there are certainly some points of contact with Artaud's concepts, the term cruelty in particular is misunderstood and incorrectly applied. This problematic use of Artaud's terms is all the more astonishing as he himself explicitly stated in his Lettres sur la cruauté, for example, on his concept of cruelty in order to avoid misunderstandings:

“It's not about the cruelty of sadism, nor about blood, at least not exclusively. I am not systematically cultivating horror. The word cruelty must be understood in a broad sense, not in the material, predatory sense that is usually attributed to it. "

With this Artaud makes it clear that physical violence, as it is often found in performances, has nothing to do with his theater performance. Instead, he goes on to explain:

“And what is it, philosophically speaking, cruelty? From the standpoint of the spirit, cruelty implies relentlessness, accomplishment and ruthless determination, irreversible, absolute determination. The most common philosophical determinism, from the standpoint of our existence, is one of the images of cruelty. The word cruelty is wrongly associated with a sense of bloody inexorability, arbitrary and uninvolved investigation of physical suffering. [...] Indeed, cruelty is not synonymous with shed blood, with martyr's flesh and crucified enemy. [...] I use the word cruelty in the sense of greed for life, of cosmic inexorability and merciless necessity, in the Gnostic sense of the vortex of life that devours the darkness, in the sense of that pain, outside of which inevitable necessity life would be impossible ”.

Not only was the concept of cruelty misunderstood by the various lines of reception, but also the scenic means required by Artaud to portray it, such as B. Language. For example, mere shouting, which is combined with extremely loud music, has nothing to do with his considerations. Instead, he formulates that the various elements should only be used under the condition "that their meaning, their physiognomy, their coming together are expanded into the symbolic by arranging these symbols into a kind of alphabet." He is therefore concerned with an inner aesthetic Order that can be used as a criterion for a 'theater of cruelty', but was often neglected or disregarded by the recipients.

Artaud is also often associated with Brecht's theory of drama. The fact that this narrowing is also due to a conceptual superficiality is exemplified by Brecht's concept of 'epic theater'. In contrast to Artaud, Brecht does not demand emotional experience, but “sober distance”; he wants to “seduce the audience into thinking.” For the sake of completeness, it must be added that similarities to Artaud are also found in theater makers such as Peter Brook, Roger Blinn or Jean Find Vilar. Even with authors of post-drama, such as Sarah Kane, there are numerous readings that work with Artaud's concepts.

Inspired by the essay Artauds, the American glam metal band Mötley Crüe named their 1985 album Theater of Pain .

literature

  • Antonin Artaud: Œuvres complètes, vol. 5: Autour du théâtre et son double et des Cenci . Paris 1979.
    • German: Bernd Mattheus (Ed.): Works in Individual Editions, Vol. 7: Mexico. The Taharumas, Revolutionary Messages, Letters (Batteries; Vol. 47). Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-88221-259-4 .
  • Antonin Artaud: The theater and its double . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-88221-658-5 (translated by Gerd Henninger; EA Frankfurt / M. 1976). In this:
Pp. 57–72 - About the Balinese theater .
P. 79–88 - No more masterpieces .
Pp. 95–107 - The Theater of Cruelty (First Manifesto) .
P. 223–232 - Bernd Mattheus: “The theater of cruelty”. A capital misunderstanding (afterword).
  • Antonin Artaud: Heliogabal or the anarchist on the throne. Rogner & Bernhard, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-80770-097-8 .
  • Antonin Artaud: No more God's judgment. The theater of cruelty. Last writings on the theater. Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1988. ISBN 3-88221-211-X .
  • Manfred Brauneck : Antonin Artaud: "Theater of Cruelty" or: Crossing borders on life and death . In: Ders .: Theater in the 20th Century. Program fonts, style periods, commentaries . Rowohlt Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek 2009, ISBN 978-3-499-55679-1 .
  • Edward Gordon Craig : On the Art of the Theater. Routledge, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-45033-1 (EA London 1911).
    • German: About the art of theater . Gerhardt Verlag, Berlin 1969.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Artaud, Antonin: Antonin, Mexico: The Tarahumaras, Revolutionary Messages, Letters , ed. Bernd Mattheus, Batteries 47, Munich: Matthes & Seitz 1992, p. 350.
  2. ↑ Cf. Mattheus, Bernd: "The theater of cruelty". A capital misunderstanding , In: Artaud, Antonin: The theater and its double. The Théâtre de Séraphin [German by Gerd Henninger], Berlin: Matthes & Seitz 2012, p. 271.
  3. ↑ Cf. Artaud, Antonin: Mexico. The Taharumas. Revolutionary messages. Letters .
  4. ^ Antonin Artaud, The Theater of Cruelty (First Manifesto) , In: Artaud, Antonin: The theater and its double. , Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979, p. 95.
  5. ↑ See, for example: Antonin Artaud, End with the masterpieces , In: Artaud, Antonin: Das Theater und seine Double. , Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979, pp. 79–83.
  6. ^ Artaud, Antonin: About the Balinese Theater , In: Artaud, Antonin: The theater and its double. Das Théâtre de Séraphin , Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979 p. 58
  7. ↑ Cf. e.g. Artaud, Antonin: Antonin, Mexico: The Tarahumaras, Revolutionary Messages, Letters , ed. Bernd Mattheus, Batteries 47, Munich: Matthes & Seitz 1992; Artaud, Antonin: “Letters from Rodez. Postsurrealistic writings ”, Berlin, Matthes & Seitz, 2001. Artaud writes about the publication in a letter to André Gide : “ I have written a little book [...] in which I [...] include the history of my whole Life told the way I suffered it and how I lived it ... [...] I believe that from the standpoint of the literary style of the 'great writers' kind, they are worth absolutely nothing because I wanted to turn the whole language upside down in it, but I believe that from a human point of view you can feel the language in it a little more than in all of my books ... I'll tell you again: not the literary arrogance of A writer who wants to attach his work and experience how it appears guides me. ” (Source: Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check Original u nd archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
  8. ^ Artaud, Antonin: "The Theater of Cruelty (First Manifesto)", p. 99.
  9. ^ Artaud, Antonin: "The Theater of Cruelty (First Manifesto)", p. 102.
  10. ^ Artaud, Antonin: "The Theater of Cruelty (First Manifesto)", pp. 102-103.
  11. ^ Artaud, Antonin: "The Theater of Cruelty (First Manifesto)", p. 103.
  12. ↑ Cf. Artaud, Antonin: Das Theater der Grausamkeit (First Manifesto) , pp. 99-107.
  13. ↑ cf. Brauneck, Manfred: Antonin Artaud: 'Theater of Cruelty' or: Border Crossing on Life and Death , In: ders., Theater in the 20th Century. Program fonts, style periods, commentaries , Rowohlt Taschenbuch-Verl. 2009, pp. 469-479.
  14. ^ Artaud, Antonin: The theater and its double . (German by Gerd Henninger), Munich: Matthes & Seitz Verlag 1996 (Orig .: Le théâtre et son double, Paris, Èditions Gallimard 1964).
  15. ^ Töteberg, Michael, "The theater of cruelty as a didactic piece. Between Brecht and Artaud: Fassbinder's experimental theater texts", Text and Criticism , 103, July 1989, p. 21.
  16. ↑ Cf. Mattheus, Bernd: The theater of cruelty. A major misunderstanding . In: Artaud, Antonin, Das Theater und seine Double: das Théâtre de Séraphin [German by Gerd Henninger], Berlin: Matthes & Seitz 2012.
  17. ↑ Kesting, Marianne, "The theater of cruelty. The living theater and its confession to Artaud", DIE ZEIT, April 14, 1967, http://www.zeit.de/1967/15/das-theater-der-grausamkeit , Accessed January 17, 2015.
  18. ↑ Cf. Büsser, Martin, "Die böse Avantgarde. Antonin Artaud, Wiener Aktionismus und die Survival Research Laboratories", testcard: Pop und Destruktion , 1/2004 / 4th edition, pp. 171-175 (year of original publication: 1995), p 223.
  19. ^ Artaud, Antonin: The theater and its double . P. 109.
  20. ^ Artaud, Antonin: The theater and its double . P. 109f.
  21. ^ Artaud, Antonin: The theater and its double . P. 96.
  22. ↑ See: Töteberg, Michael, "The theater of cruelty as a teaching piece.", P. 22.
  23. ↑ See Anonymous, "Artaud and the theater of cruelty in connection with the theater conception of the antitheater by Fassbinder and the folk piece of the 70s.", Http://www.literaturbaum.de/Volksstueck5.html , accessed: January 17, 2015 .
  24. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. p. 156