Antonin Artaud and the Theater of Cruelty: Crash Course Theater #43

[@cannedstarfish6194]

Who is here because Red Flood and only feels more puzzling?

[@mborok]

When I was in high school I wrote a play with a stage direction that called for “a subtle change in lighting that causes in the audience a sudden desire to speak French.” I didn’t know at the time that I was channeling Artaud.

[@curiousworld7912]

I heard an anecdote once that upon leaving the asylum, following the war, Artaud looked around and said, 'And they call me crazy?'.

[@queerchoreography54]

Oh, and thank you for doing Artaud before Brecht. I got a C in theatre history when my professor refused to my submission on Artaud, she suggested Brecht instead. I did it anyway, after all, that’s what he would have done!

[@Elfos64]

... that sounds like the stage equivalent of a snuff film.

[@kokuinomusume]

TBH it kind of sounds like Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou.

[@twinkiesmaster69]

- AND THEN TYE LORD SAID: "He was a VERY interesting guy"

[@polishstalinist3835]

FASTER!

[@ayrtonmacainan8662]

FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! -like if you get the reference

[@LadCarmichael]

Ok this is the point where theater makes me think "WTF?"

[@DarkAngelEU]

Artaud is the inspiration to almost all of my favourite artists. It's insane to discover how people can be inspired by the same person and have their own go with his theories of cruelty :)

[@Bomp..]

L'état irréel C'est tout à fait l'endroit As they say

[@RangerRuby]

Every single new Crash Course video simply blows me away with how they take something I am not that interested in and make it REALLY interesting! It makes learning so awesome that I want to watch and rewatch every single video!

[@Allovimo]

+

[@DingoWalley01]

"Ah that's what he was looking for!" _Insert Laugh Track_ _Insert Credits_ _Insert 'Family Matters' Credit theme_

[@Daniii150]

BRECHT!!!!!!!! I was literally looking through the theatre playlist in search of Brecht and Epic Theatre until you said there’d be a video soon. SO HAPPY :D

[@atis9061]

fk Brecht there's only Artaud

[@queerchoreography54]

My favorite artist of all time. Thank you, this really was a crash course! Why is he a favorite? I love artists that truly take risks, and he was just that artist. Susan Sontag said, ‘there are two historic periods, before and after Artaud’ I love you Artaud🐲

[@pethuman4557]

"it's gonna be epic"....I saw what you did there.....

[@camiloiribarren1450]

The dark side of theatre and the director/actor/playwright who took incredible amounts of medications that did not help him. His theory of having magic and myth to tell the story of reality is definitely interesting and fun to learn

[@LeafLeafy]

I am slowly falling in love with theater. I never knew this was possible.

[@amyelb3507]

I love him, and his work. Truly unreal. We have focused in him and his drama forms a lot in A-level drama! Just watched this video before my written exam. it was a good help.

[@chukileffa]

Great to see this series, I don't know your production schedule but I really hope you find time to explore a bit of Augusto Boal's work. The Theater of the oppressed and so many of his other works are really big and it is being threatened by our current government here in Brazil and highlighting it to so many people outside our borders would be really meaningful.

[@Felishamois]

+

[@davehumphries]

" *You are looking especially dead today* " Mood

[@Saffron-sugar]

I think Artaud is writing my nightmares

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

The Jet of Blood is hilarious as presented here by ThoughtBubble. I had to watch it multiple times.

[@line4169]

Basically, third impact scene in end of Eva!!!!

[@EVEspinosa79]

The Jet of Blood sounds as hallucinating and fear inducing as Mother! XD

[@geminibodyshop71]

well that was a bit crazy

[@TarkMcCoy]

At this point I believe he's just making this up...

[@MikiMizumiChan6]

I read the entirety of The Theater and its Double for my Graduate class and didn't get what the hell was going on until this video. So thank you!

[@Vaati1992]

Yes! Already looking forward to my man Brecht. Also generally I love this series, as it explains drama and theater in a way school and academia hasn't managed, so... Props to y'all

[@moondoggarvey4282]

Glad that you mentioned Jerzy Grotowski! Fantastic artist. Here's hoping he gets an episode dedicated to him and his influential ideas.

[@PennyDreadful1]

It's the theatrical version of the kind of thoughts you get when falling asleep.

[@scruffyea4062]

S P E E D

[@ayrtonmacainan8662]

there is no god but S P E E D and artaud is our prophet

[@noticias6111]

I know about 'Theatre of Cruelty' after having seen mention of it in the 'Art assignment' video on performance art.

[@allieanderson92]

lol can we talk about how the girl the wet nurse drags out is the animated character from Machinal??

[@KMO325]

…Damn! Also, he was in The Passion of Joan of Arc? That's like one of the most intensely acted movies of all time.

[@MKPiatkowski]

@@John-ir4id Ugh. Hate directors who do that. You can get those things without torturing your actors. Just find the idea/image that gets them there.

[@radeadcool]

I did an Artaud show in the 2000's. Guy was mad but i had a good time working on plays.

[@dantheman585]

This really helped me with a project for my Intro to Theatre class! Thanks, Crash Course!

[@mojosbigsticks]

Too easy to say - 'Full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.'

[@gomcocramp]

@@John-ir4id read your fuccin shakespeare bro

[@alteritiesalways]

To understand Artaud, I highly recommend Deleuze's philosophical works. Deleuze (and Guattari) wrote extensively on Artaud, and in doing so elaborated upon his life, his life's work, and most of all his schizophrenia. Madness is not as we all typically see it; there is more to madness than our discomfort. There is genius. There is agony - agony beyond the sane. None of the sane will ever experience the pain of experiencing beyond and prior to themselves, split into a thousand pieces, reunited, and split again; this cycle continues. Artaud, at least in his early years, clearly expressed how he struggled to adhere to continuity of the self; how could any single person understand this agony? I know I am not quite sane, yet nothing I have experienced is close to Artaud. This is why he is so important! Everything he had thought was beyond us! What Deleuze and Guattari talked about in discussing Artaud was genius understanding of the place and affect of Artaud; what can he teach us of madness? what is madness? But more importantly, what does madness do? Artaud is the blueprint of all good philosophy! I do not mean that we should all be mad, but that we should reconsider "madness". Guattari's work at the La Borde clinic, his writings on the work and projects he undertook WITH (not On, or UPON!) the "mad" is extremely important. Having a psychoanalyst (schizoanalytical Guattari) and philosopher (Deleuze, who understood the future better than us who live in it) discuss Artaud (who lived and wrote in such a manner that inspires brilliance, diversion, and insanity!) come together in writing - though Artaud was unfortunately not alive to see it, either through overdose or accident - such brilliance! Every piece of writing from Artaud is worth reading. "To have done with the judgement of God" is the title of his radio play; the play where one of Deleuze's most elusive (though it is quite useful and easy to understand if you have read Artaud and Deleuze extensively, as they both should be read!) concepts; the body without organs.

[@Udontkno7]

God, I love this series.

[@estancemoriarty1810]

We are going to see Brecht ! I'm so happy! Finally!

[@durangomcmurphy1529]

" Smart , gone crazy " - Allen Ginsberg

[@8rickey]

These are so great! Thank you for them!!

[@wheres_the_SOUP]

I love how factitious this guy is being ♥️

[@Dayglodaydreams]

Within' 39 seconds of this video I started screaming in revulsion.

[@stphnmrrs3982]

I was starting to think they’d never get around to it but thankfully I was wrong! Comrade Brecht!

[@rllymarlon4886]

Thank you for this video!!

[@Dayglodaydreams]

"The Theater and Its Double" sounds like a postmodern koan similar to "The Organ-less Body", at best, it's "The Mirror of Nature".

[@VishalSingh-zf4st]

Can u explain...what actually....is the theater and it's double...I mean if u could give a short summary of theater and it's double

[@halem6580]

I took a theater class where we studied Artaud and we had to create a written staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream according to ideas about the mise en scene. After hearing about that play, I see why we didn’t have to do something plausible with our hypothetical staging and design.

[@171QA]

I remember learning about this at SCAD.

[@MakeMeThinkAgain]

His exit performance was epic

[@LittleJoeTheMoonlightCat]

It's Called a Relapse, just get the guy some Poppy Seed Muffins.

[@willjones362]

this is drama homework lmao

[@yimboman]

You forgot about the famous album "Artaud" by Luis Alberto Spinetta!

[@ChessMasteryOfficial]

*Someday is not a day of the week. ^^*

[@verdatum]

Can you point me to good resources that explain the significance of Artaud? I feel like this just scratches the surface, and I'm not quite able to make the connections beyond "it's surrealism, adapted to the theatre." and I'm pretty sure there is much more to it than that.

[@RachelReiss]

What Artaud needed was an evening or two at a nice musical comedy...

[@meligoose9368]

Is his work not a good example of musical comedy?

[@RachelReiss]

Meli Penfold But without music or a book!

[@Violins1345]

The fact that Crash Course made a video on Artaud makes my little dramaturgical nerd heart sing. Not because he’s a particularly good person. But without him and Brecht, modern theater would literally never be the same. And most people know one but not the other. And that’s sad. Because weird theater is fun! But I might be biased in saying that bc I’m working on a Grotowski-influenced devised piece so I just like weird theater.

[@Soupandsandwich]

im doing artaud as my theatre theorist for my solo for ib theatre this was very useful

[@nechma13]

I'm so excited for bertolt brecht please do Susan glaspell and Eugene Ionesco

[@vrixphillips]

Jean Genet? Please tell me we get an episode about Genet's plays. And The Screens in ThoughtBubble lol

[@atis9061]

i'll take Genet definitely over Brecht

[@Mr.Nichan]

Those stage directions really are "fun", aren't they. I'm really curious how they did those.

[@nechma13]

I love this I talked about this alot in my classes

[@heatherbarfield6173]

Responses must be in glossolalia only! ;)

effort vs reward

[@realdealprimer]

Bravo 👏🏻👏🏻

[@blakea22]

the first 10 seconds made me laugh a lil to hard and i may have watched it a few to many times...

[@davidcampos1463]

The artist always grows darker as he reaches for that higher plateau. The audience is not at fault. In most cases there is no higher plateau.

[@meligoose9368]

why won't youtube give me that "wow" react?

[@ktln7700]

superb! Thank you so much. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@lissetteamparan7]

I’m getting vibes of David Lynch and Crispin Glover

[@atis9061]

no you're not. you're looking for a quick solution

[@BrianHutzellMusic]

INEZ: He's smart. He's saving. Most stars spend and I smell like wet fudge much. GORGONS: I should be so lucky. I mean shake your groove thing be a star; I already spend and I smelready spend and smell like wetfudgemuch! IMOGENE: Lots of pale tasting bread's okay. ICABOD: Lots of pale tasting bread... SISTER: I have no lines in this play. [Several pigs fly by and the stage becomes fish.] Theodore Roosevelt: Why am I not in all-caps? ICABOD: Yeah, seems shake your groove my split. INEZ: Like lots of pale tasting bread. ICABOD: I'm lost fleebus; what does the soft gray basketball hoop have shake your groove thing do with your brotfleebus's success? EXEC 1: Help! The twilbnee! EXEC 2: Pass [Elmer removes his hat seductively and glances around the icehouse for signs of a struggle.]

[@starblomma]

I really don't care about theatre a lot but I like Mike so much, I would also watch him if he just read the phonebook :-D

[@toddfischer4779]

"Lot goin' on there." Yeah. :)

[@NerdGeekFutureSpeak]

Oh my...

[@angelo-7533]

I still miss the mythology crash course :)

[@unruhigematerialflut]

Also the shows of Frank Castorf! Look him Up!

[@diphyllum8180]

Hey come on Thought Bubble where are our alembics

[@markserrano4586]

This guys life story is the most interesting part.

[@rileybanks1191]

"I'm going to go to Ireland, because this staff I found belonged to St. Patrick, Jesus and Lucifer, and I want to return it to it's rightful owner" "But Antonin, you speak next-to-no English and no Gaelic!" "I WILL GOOOOO"

[@rileybanks1191]

"I'm going to go to Ireland, because this staff I found belonged to St. Patrick, Jesus and Lucifer, and I want to return it to it's rightful owner" "But Antonin, you speak next-to-no English and no Gaelic!" "I WILL GOOOOO"

[@kirstenclow1467]

I loveeee Brecht!! So excited for the next episode 😁

[@choccomonde]

HAHAHAHA MAN YOU ARE HILARIOUS WITH THE COMMENT! I thoroughly enjoyed this crash course. Man I wished you did the Economy crash course, it seems like you can 'fun up' everything. ''A lot going on there'' hahahahhaha greetings from Bosnia, keep it up, I 'll subscribe

[@geoffreywinn4031]

Cool video!

[@Hecatonicosachoron]

I like it But those stage directions are impossible

[@lambdaweaponscache5394]

End of Evangelion anyone?

[@davidcampos1463]

A sharp stick in the eye is so vivid as the point comes into focus. But of course you, as an audience member, are required to go blind in the process. Is sight such a small price to pay for the sake of art?

[@RobertSzasz]

Was it the wetnurse, the scorpion, or the play that you're saying we didn't know we needed?

[@hamburgerdan101]

So he hated realism but wanted the theater to be more realistic than real life?

[@pigeonfowl474]

Anyone watch these just for the awesome intro?

[@MasqueTheRedDeathDJ]

A jet/spurt of blood is a really interesting take on the story of Adam and Eve

[@kevinogracia1615]

I gave you a thumbs up for recognizing this innovative man of the theater. Yet, I'm concerned about your quick (and poor) history of of his life before you introduced his true insights. I know it's very hard to complete a full history as rich as Artaud in 11 minutes but at least get your timeline correct. For a good read, read "Antonin Artaud : Man Of Vision" by Bettina L. Knapp. Peace on Earth...

[@nhdang101]

Great video. From Viet Nam. Nice to meet U

[@christinabishop7352]

Do an episode on Grande Grenol

[@unleashingpotential-psycho9433]

All humans should show love to one another and not cruelty.

[@meligoose9368]

"Cruelty" the way Artaud uses the word is not necessarily the way you seem to be using it (as an antonym for love). "Cruelty" for Artaud was more of an agitation against the boring, day to day life.

[@darrenkrivit6854]

You had me at scorpians and vaginas 🤗

[@edadamson8794]

First! Never actually done this before, it feels weird to scroll down to the bottom of a popular video and see no comments.

[@dariusblackcloud2314]

Ed Adamson congrats. You’re a waste of time, space, and resources.

[@johnrockets3719]

G

[@edadamson8794]

@@dariusblackcloud2314 Says the guy hating on a comment of a video on the internet, yeah I'm the saddest one here... P.S. You just mad cos you weren't first. xP

[@LukeBunyip]

Revel in the glory of this moment, and then no more. Also, good naturally jealous 😉

[@ferociousmaliciousghost]

How do you even do 9:22?

[@radicalbacon]

I don't mean it mean either

[@kamalkaushik8117]

Like the egg

everything i watch do and learn sucks find something positive

[@theoldar]

The problem is that only a few people really want theater like this.

[@meligoose9368]

Mainstream theater and film is always looking to the avant-garde to learn new techniques to incorporate into their own work.

[@theoldar]

@@John-ir4id A decade ago I was at a world premiere event of an orchestral piece by the L A Philharmonic. It was fairly awful (just to be clear it was NOT written by Salonen ), and the audience greeted it with tepid applause and many people stayed respectfully silent. During intermission I didn't speak to a single person who had liked it. The next day I read the review in the L A Times and the critic gave it a rapturous review, and said the audience had cheered lustfully for the piece. I was kind of amazed at this deception. I think it says a lot about the state of the arts these days.

[@theoldar]

@@John-ir4id Sounds a lot like the shows where people defecate on the stage, or inject themselves with cow's blood. No thanks! I can get a reaction out of anyone, any time if I want to. That doesn't make it art.

[@theoldar]

@@John-ir4id But you must be so much more subtle than I am, or have a more discerning sense of taste. Or maybe the emperor simply wears no clothes, and we have forgotten the difference between shock and art. Just to be clear, in the battle between Brahms and Wagner, I am with Brahms. It's great for an artist of Wagner's genius to make art for art's sake, but for the other 99.99% of artists it just results in noise. Modern art has created a whole lot of noise. And thank you so much for the insult. It shows everyone EXACTLY who you are!

[@theoldar]

@@John-ir4id Good luck! I have been a stout defender of both the First Amendment AND public funding for art I don't necessarily like for many decades. You will need both of those things for most modern art to survive. The plastic arts are different, because super rich people can OWN those pieces, and use them as peacock feathers. But as for music and theater, well, you can't OWN a tune or a play, so they will continue to require both public forbearance AND funding. You see, I am not quite the stupid potato you think I am.

[@kennethdavy4051]

Damn isn’t this the watch mojo guy?

[@howardbankler66]

Can u do Antigone please

[@ashleymedows5037]

Opium is a hell of a drug

[@Dayglodaydreams]

Okay, that was riotous. Brecht is so traditional, he cannot hold a candle to this (what makes theater "Brechtian" anyway...is it showing peasant/working class actors, is it "Alienation" depicted onstage, is it "ideology" and politically charged theater)?

[@Dayglodaydreams]

And, little did I know we are looking at Brecht next time.

[@Violins1345]

Brecht is considered traditional now because his aesthetic and style are literally everywhere. Epic theatre has been appropriated by capitalist theater traditions to become normal. That’s why theater doesn’t feel particularly “Brechtian” anymore. But what defines Brechtian theater is making the theatricality of a piece inherent to the experience of watching it. You are disallowing the audience emotional engagement with the show in order to emphasize the actions and plot of whatever is happening. This is supposed to make audiences rally and get political and work to change the social situations that are in their real lives that match within the play. Instead, people just thought Brecht’s aesthetic was cool and stole it. 🙃