The strive for revolution through theatre: Contrasting the ways through which Artaud and Brecht attempted to renovate theatre
A. M. T.
Bachelor of Communications with Theatre Studies
Critical History of the Development of the Theatrical Text: From Diderot to Brecht
University of Malta
The strive for revolution through theatre
Contrasting the ways through which Artaud and Brecht attempted to renovate theatre
Abstract
This essay defines and illustrates the ways in which Antonin Artaud and Bertolt Brecht have used theatre as a means for revolution. It explores the meaning each understood of ‘revolution’, and how this diverging meaning led to different approaches and results. While underling the importance change had for each, contrast in their approaches of ‘reason vs. the senses’ and ‘the body vs. the socio-political’ are brought out. Common aims, such as the actor-spectator relationship, their favour of the collective meaning, as well as their common conflict and desire to subvert the bourgeoisie society are also discussed. Finally, a comparison between their written and staged output is made.
‘Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are’ (Brecht in Burke and Kehde, 1976) In this quote, Bertolt Brecht is underlining both the inevitability and importance of change. It is for the restless renovation that Brecht, along with Antonin Artaud, brought to Theatre and the theatrical text that they are both considered universally influential by practitioners that came after. Both Artaud and Brecht wanted one common outcome form their theatre - revolution. Their influence manifests itself both in theory and in practice. However, while both were prolific when it comes to the poetics of theatre, only Brecht was successful in his efforts to stage his theories, while Artaud’s work remains theoretical exploration. Furthermore, the work of both is in essence a work on the actor-spectator relationship. However each distinct practitioner approaches this in a different way, consequently arriving at different conclusions.
Bachelor of Communications with Theatre Studies
Critical History of the Development of the Theatrical Text: From Diderot to Brecht
University of Malta
The strive for revolution through theatre
Contrasting the ways through which Artaud and Brecht attempted to renovate theatre
Abstract
This essay defines and illustrates the ways in which Antonin Artaud and Bertolt Brecht have used theatre as a means for revolution. It explores the meaning each understood of ‘revolution’, and how this diverging meaning led to different approaches and results. While underling the importance change had for each, contrast in their approaches of ‘reason vs. the senses’ and ‘the body vs. the socio-political’ are brought out. Common aims, such as the actor-spectator relationship, their favour of the collective meaning, as well as their common conflict and desire to subvert the bourgeoisie society are also discussed. Finally, a comparison between their written and staged output is made.
‘Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are’ (Brecht in Burke and Kehde, 1976) In this quote, Bertolt Brecht is underlining both the inevitability and importance of change. It is for the restless renovation that Brecht, along with Antonin Artaud, brought to Theatre and the theatrical text that they are both considered universally influential by practitioners that came after. Both Artaud and Brecht wanted one common outcome form their theatre - revolution. Their influence manifests itself both in theory and in practice. However, while both were prolific when it comes to the poetics of theatre, only Brecht was successful in his efforts to stage his theories, while Artaud’s work remains theoretical exploration. Furthermore, the work of both is in essence a work on the actor-spectator relationship. However each distinct practitioner approaches this in a different way, consequently arriving at different conclusions.
References: Artaud, A. (1958). The theater and its double. New York: Grove Press. Brecht, B., & Willett, J. (1964). A Short Organum for the Theatre.. Brecht on theatre: the development of an aesthetic (pp. 179-205). London: Eyre Methuen. Brecht, B., & Willett, J. (1993). Bertolt Brecht journals 1934-1955. London: Methuen. Jamieson, L. (2007). Antonin Artaud: from theory to practice. London: Greenwich Exchange. Brecht, B. (1976). As quoted in Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations by Burke J.G. and Kehde N., (p. 224) S.l.: John Gordon Burke Publisher