Theatre Of Cruelty

Theatre of Cruelty is Artaud's theory in which he intended to create theatre that assaulted the audience's senses and cause them to express previously unexpressed emotions and reactions. The main intention would be to completely shock and affect the audience as much as possible, whether that be through violent imagery, sounds or lighting, as well as the main performance work. He wanted the audience to rid themselves of their natural mindset, free their natural energy and change the way they perceive the world. He believed that word's phonic sounds carried the ability to express emotions and trumau more successfully than the words themselves, this meant that many of his show featured gibberish, inarticulate sounds and cries.  However, he only produced a singular play that was created according to the theory; "Les Cenci" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which was a commercial failure.

I personally find this theory extremely interesting and if it was carried out successfully it would be really effective at shocking the audience and creating an impact that would leave them questioning not only themselves but the world and society as a whole. I feel developing and producing a successful piece involving theatre of cruelty would be extremely difficult - especially in modern times when it's become particularly hard to shock people than it might have been, however, I feel the creative process would be extremely beneficial as an actor and I would at least like to experience it in the future.