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“We must have done with this idea of masterpieces reserved for a self-styled elite and not understood by the general public; the mind has no such restricted districts as those so often used for clandestine sexual encounters” (74). Artaud claims that the works of Sophocles and Shakespeare are no longer relevant to modern society – a society of mechanization and industrialization. “If the public does not frequent our literary masterpieces, it is because those masterpieces are literary, that is to say, fixed; and fixed in forms that no longer respond to the needs of the time”
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“The theatre must give us everything that is in crime, love, war, or madness, if it wants to recover its necessity” (85). “Practically speaking, we want to resuscitate an idea of total spectacle by which the theatre would recover from the cinema, the music hall, the circus, and from life itself what has always belonged to it” (86). “It is a matter of knowing whether now, in Paris, before the cataclysms which are at our door descend upon us, sufficient means of production, financial or otherwise, can be found to permit such a theatre to be brought to life – it is bound to in any case because it is the future. Or whether a little real blood will be needed, right away, in order to manifest this cruelty” …show more content…
Barrault has done is theatre” (146).
Considering Artaud’s sharp critiques of most European theatre, this is extremely high praise indeed.
In Memoriam Antonin Artaud This added essay is a summation of Artaud’s life, work, and importance written by Maurice Saillet. Saillet uncovers the darker sides of Artaud, as much as they can possibly be uncovered. He does not try to explain the theories so much as to combat the notion that Artaud was just ‘crazy’. He hopes to help us understand both Antonin Artaud and Artaud-le-Momo.
“Those who were his friends will tell us what sort of man Antonin Artaud was. I had only approached him occasionally, yet the look in his eyes is still vivid to my own. And the “Nervalian” grace of his presence, rendering all the more poignant the tragic assurance of his powers of Revelation, remains with me like a secret effusion” (159).
“The theatre must give us everything that is in crime, love, war, or madness, if it wants to recover its necessity” (85). “Practically speaking, we want to resuscitate an idea of total spectacle by which the theatre would recover from the cinema, the music hall, the circus, and from life itself what has always belonged to it” (86). “It is a matter of knowing whether now, in Paris, before the cataclysms which are at our door descend upon us, sufficient means of production, financial or otherwise, can be found to permit such a theatre to be brought to life – it is bound to in any case because it is the future. Or whether a little real blood will be needed, right away, in order to manifest this cruelty” …show more content…
Barrault has done is theatre” (146).
Considering Artaud’s sharp critiques of most European theatre, this is extremely high praise indeed.
In Memoriam Antonin Artaud This added essay is a summation of Artaud’s life, work, and importance written by Maurice Saillet. Saillet uncovers the darker sides of Artaud, as much as they can possibly be uncovered. He does not try to explain the theories so much as to combat the notion that Artaud was just ‘crazy’. He hopes to help us understand both Antonin Artaud and Artaud-le-Momo.
“Those who were his friends will tell us what sort of man Antonin Artaud was. I had only approached him occasionally, yet the look in his eyes is still vivid to my own. And the “Nervalian” grace of his presence, rendering all the more poignant the tragic assurance of his powers of Revelation, remains with me like a secret effusion” (159).