Literature and the Arts

What is the theater of cruelty?

Link to this answer

CloseClose

Link to this answer

Share this credible answer with others. Simply paste this code into your blog or Web page:

<a href="http://qanda.encyclopedia.com/question/theater-cruelty-80405.html" >What is the theater of cruelty?</a>
E-mail this answer Link to this answer

Artaud's theories of drama, particularly his concept of the "theater of cruelty," greatly influenced 20th-century theater. He related theater to the plague because both destroy the veneer of civilization, revealing the ugly realities beneath and returning humanity to a primitive state, in which it lacks morality and reason. The aim of the "theater of cruelty" was to disturb the audience and reveal the forces of nature.

Answer verified with
Get more facts and information about Artaud, Antonin . Or, view the full encyclopedia entry from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.

Similar questions: What kind of theater disturbs the audience? What was Artaud's theory of drama? Why did Artaud compare theater to the plague? Which type of drama makes the audience members uncomfortable? Who compared theater to the plague? [ Hide these questions ]

Related research questions

Related research articles

The Medieval Theater of Cruelty: Rhetoric, Memory, Violence.(Review)
Magazine article from: Comparative Drama ...The Medieval Theater of Cruelty: Rhetoric, Memory, Violence...torture, law, rhetoric, theater, and aesthetics are interconnected...at least within medieval theater circles) approach to and...readings of torture and of theater alongside medieval rhetorical...between medieval and modern ...
Theater of cruelty: sadistic director Lars von Trier has delivered the best...
Magazine article from: Esquire WALKING THE RED CARPET at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Nicole Kidman, in town for the world premiere of Lars von Trier's Dogville, paused for a moment to remove her high heels. The film's notoriously travel-shy director, she explained, had agreed to come to France (via car from Denmark) on the
Laughter in the abyss of human cruelty.(Theater review)
Newspaper article from: The Evening Standard (London, England) ...poetry, than that it should be sanitised or censored. It is bracing to look into, and to be revolted by, the abyss of human cruelty that this play opens up, and then to be pulled back from the brink by a cynical, macabre joke. This Titus is a workout for...
Intolerable Cruelty.(Opening in theaters next week)(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: Video Store INTOLERABLE CRUELTY Universal George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones Opens: Oct. 10, Wide Release The Coen Brothers direct Clooney as Miles Massey...
CRUELTY AND DELIGHT IN EQUAL MEASURE.(U)(Review)
Newspaper article from: Daily News (Los Angeles, CA) ...The Piano Teacher.'' So, too, will fans of the incomparable French actress Isabelle Huppert and European theater-of-cruelty cinema (the movie won the top acting awards and the grand jury prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival...
See all results at HighBeam

HighBeam gives you access to newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles plus press releases, facts, information, and biographies from thousands of sources.