The Theatre and Its Double

(Paperback)

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First published in 1938, The Theatre and Its Double is a collection of essays detailing Antonin Artauds radical theories on drama and theatre, which he saw as being stifled by conservatism and lack of experimentation. Containing the famous manifestos of the Theatre of Cruelty, the collection analyses the underlying impulses of performance, provides some suggestions on a physical-training method for actors and actresses, and features a long appreciation of the expressive values of Eastern dance drama.

Reviews

He has had an impact so profound that the course of all recent serious theatre in Western Europe and the Americas can be said to divide into two periods - before Artaud and after Artaud. -- Susan Sontag

Author Bio

Antonin Artaud (1896 1948) was a French dramatist, poet, essayist, actor and theatre director, widely recognized as one of the major figures of twentieth-century theatre and the European avant-garde. Artaud's most significant contribution to drama theory is his "theater of cruelty" and, although it was not widely embraced in practice, the ideas have been, and continue to be, the subject of many essays on modern theater.