Essay
The Theatre and Its Double
Le Théâtre et son double
Antonin Artaud · 1938
Opening lines
Les archives de la petite ville de Cagliari, en Sardaigne, contiennent la relation d’un fait historique et étonnant.
The archives of the small town of Cagliari, in Sardinia, contain an account of an event at once historical and astonishing.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from fr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
The collection gathers essays, lectures, manifestos and extracts from letters devoted to the theatre. The author compares the art of the stage to a plague epidemic, describes the Balinese dancers seen at the Colonial Exhibition, contrasts Eastern theatre with Western theatre and demands an end to the cult of masterpieces. In two manifestos, he calls for a stage that seizes the spectator through the senses and through gesture rather than through the recited text.
Context
The book appeared with Gallimard in 1938, in the Métamorphoses series, in an edition of four hundred copies. Its author had been interned since the previous year, after his return from Ireland. Most of the texts collected dated from the early thirties: the essay on Balinese theatre is from 1931, the first manifesto on cruelty in the theatre from 1932 and the second from 1933, and the text on the plague reprises a lecture given at the Sorbonne.
Who it is for
Short, independent texts that can be read separately. The language is vehement, closer to a manifesto than to a treatise.
Prizes and reception
In English, Mary Caroline Richards's translation appeared with Grove Press in 1958; Victor Corti's, published by Calder, has been reissued by Alma Classics.
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