Antonin Artaud

Routledge Performance Practitioners is a series of introductory guides to the key theatre-makers of the last century. Each volume explains the background to and the work of one of the major influences on twentieth- and twenty-first-century performance.

Antonin Artaud was an active theatre-maker and theorist whose ideas reshaped contemporary approaches to performance. This is the first book to combine

• an overview of Artaud’s life with a focus on his work as an actor and director;
• an analysis of his key theories, including the Theatre of Cruelty and the double;
• a consideration of his work as a director at the Théâtre Alfred Jarry and his production of Strindberg’s A Dream Play; and
• a series of practical exercises to develop an approach to theatre based on Artaud’s key ideas.

As a first step towards critical understanding and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today’s student.