Artaud, stage director of Vitrac's play

Abstract

Studies of Artaud's thoughts on theatre have not sufficiently taken account of his practical experiences. In this paper, centering on his productions of Vitrac, I will show that Artaud, who had started from reflections on the nature of representation in general (as opposed to the real) and of representation in theatre where actors are invited to reenact dramas mimetically, was highly consistent in his search for reality and language (in its broad sens). In his production of' Les Mystères de l'Amour, a play full of nightmarish images, or Victor ou les Enfants au Pouvoir, a parody of the bourgeois family drama, as well as in the plan for Le Coup de Trafalgar (not realized), a well-made light comedy of Parisians upset by small and great events (a swindle, World War 1), Artaud aimed to force the public out of their unconscious state, by introducing cuts and unsteadiness, destroying traditional frames, or “citing” conventional patterns of acting. Artaud thus preceded the dominant stage directors of the following period and his experimental ideas in «La Mise en scene et la Métaphysique» included in Le Théâtre et son Double, can be seen to have had an international impact in the 60s and a continuing influence ever since.