Whole Language, The Whole Space, And Overall Performances

Antonin Artaud(1896-1948), a French poet, writer, actor and drama theorist, is the most influential dramatist to the modern drama and post-modern drama in the twentieth century with his pioneering theory of Theatre of Cruelty put forth in his book Le Theatre et son Double. His theory of Theatre of Cruelty is a notion of total theatre, i.e., the actor conducts performance of the total theatre with the corresponding language in the theatre to stimulate the varied senses and corresponding emotions from the audience. In this way the vice in the audience's subconsciousness will be released so that the audience may achieve spiritual purification. Enlightened by the primitive myth and rituals, Antonin Artaud held that drama is life and the reconstruction of drama is the reconstruction of life and myth. The present thesis approaches the formation of Antonin Artaud's theory of theatre of cruelty, focusing on the notions of "cruelty" and "Double" to explore the connotations of theatre of cruelty. Through detailed analysis on the language, space and performance in the drama, it holds that the notion of theatre of cruelty is a notion of total theatre, which comprises three major elements:the language of total theatre gathering all the expressive means in the theatre space; the space of total theatre incorporation the universal space and theatre space; the performance of the total theatre actors perform to connect the tangible and intangible worlds.The present thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter historically outlines the formation of the notion of theatre of cruelty and analyzes its theoretical connotations and breakthrough. Taking into consideration of Antonin Artaud's unique living experience and drama practices, the thesis proceeds from the changing French drama environment at the beginning of the twentieth century and re-analyzes the oriental enlightenment he has obtained in order to provide a historical account of the emergence of the notion of theatre of cruelty. Then, by focusing on Le Theatre et son Double, the present thesis explores the nature and function of theatre of cruelty in detail and analyzes its basic elements and artistic features. It holds that the notion is actually a notion of total theatre. Compared with the previous theater theories, theatre of cruelty constitutes a considerable breakthrough on the notions of theatre language, space and performance.The second chapter concretely explores Antonin Artaud's notion of theatre language, which is a language notion of total theatre. Antonin Artaud negates the actors'lines based on the audial-linguistic system of "narrating/listening", which is the western traditional theatre language with pure language as its center. His ideal theatre language is the one mixed by audible language (music, tone, lines, breathes, etc.) and mute language (dance, clothes design, mime, mimicking, dynamic architecture, light, background, property, etc.)He emphasizes theatre language's function of conveying meaning in the space and regards it as the "hieroglyph in the space", which has changed the narrative style of theatre.The third chapter aims to prove that Antonin Artaud's notion of theatre space is a spatial notion of total theatre. He cancels the western traditional division between the mirror-frame-shaped stage and theatre lobby and replaces it with a total theatre space, i.e. a 360 degree stage in the theatre, circling the audience with a round-shaped performance. At this time, the vision between actors and audiences disappears and the audience, guided by the actor, enters the same theatre space and merges with the universe. In the theatre space, all the illusory sculptures are demolished. Its "emptiness" fills full the multi-layered space and all the possible material means and spiritual power. In the whole space, under the precise calculation of the director, a complicated yet inter-connected net is formed in the whole space. What the space of theatre of cruelty tries to present is not fragments in life, but comprehensive imagination towards the universe. This space is the myth-ritual space which incorporates human beings and the universe. It transcends the traditional space characterized by fragmented space and time and is shaped into a large space of total theatre.The fourth chapter highlights that Antonin Artaud's notion of theatre performance is a performance notion of total theatre. He overthrows the previous theatre performance mode characterized by supreme positions of draft and language. In his play, the actors are only symbolized figures and the media triggering the subconsciousness of the actors. Also, actions take the place of personal characters and personal history and become the most important element in the theatre performance.The actor should constantly explore the pains and desires in the subconsciousness and express them by actions to make the audience moved and organically combine actor, role and audience into one.The most important performance idea of Antonin Artaud is "bodylization". In his eyes, the body is the combination of material and emotions. He tries to find all the emotional response in each corresponding part of the body and try to endow the emotion with physical features (or visionary features), which bridges the gap between the outer performance action and language and inner emotions of the actor in the traditional performance. The performance is the one of total theatre, featuring bodily performance from breath to muscle.