Antonin Artaud
I find parallels between Antonin Artaud’s theatrical vison and my own. A central premise of my show being the materialization of spiritual decay in modern life shares with Artaud’s own beliefs. He saw “decay on such a fundamental level, that his writings [did] not distinguish between its artistic, moral, social, cultural or material manifestations (Jannarone, 2012, 70). Decay is an element of my show I wish to vivify, and so have to Dorito dust coating the stage as a literal consumerist materialisation of deterioration. However, decay features more prominently in my show in a number of ways: The poetical decay of Blake’s words coupled with my own, the gradual degeneration of the televangelist video, and the visual decline of the space through the lighting.
Artaud’s “aggressive antipathy” (ibid, 69) towards aspects of modern western civilisation culminated in an intriguing style of writing and performance, which I hope to capture some essence of in my own poems. In many ways I wish my words had used a greater range of aggressively grotesque images, similarly to Artaud’s, and also Heiner Muller, such as his line “I’ll make you into a virgin again Mother so that the King has a bloody wedding THE MOTHER’S LAP IS NO ONE-WAY STREET Now I tie your hands behind your back with the bridal train because I loathe your embrace” (Muller, 1979) from Hamletmachine. I do not wish to reduce or over-simplify Artaud, but, in the most perfunctory sense, my performance draws from the threatening language used in his works, in an attempt to create a disdainful atmosphere towards a decaying civilisation, and (hopefully) producing a passionate and evocative experience.
Rachel Rosenthal
Rosenthal respected Artaud and his work, saying “The Theatre and its Double is my theatre bible” (quoted in Roth, 2000, 92), and I believe it is apparent in her style. Her work, however, seems to be even closer to what I wish to achieve. The brutality in her performances is striking, and so is the uncomfortable comedy derived from it. She would be classed as a hybrid artist, producing a variety of unique performances, and it is her show filename: FUTURFAX that I have drawn most inspiration from. The show premiered in 1992, and the premise was that Rosenthal was performing twenty years in the future in 2012, a point where humanity had doomed the planet and caused much of the world’s species to go extinct – essentially creating a post-apocalyptic vision. The show centred on themes of decay – particularly ecological and spiritual, in favour of capitalism and consumerism – and is therefore, thematically comparable to my own piece.
She creates performances criticising current cultural standards, highlighting the decline of society – particularly concerning ecological elements – and often does this “with film, video and slide projections” (ibid). Moira Roth claims that “audience members are usually inspired by the vitality and imagination of Rosenthal’s art, rather than oppressed by the pessimism of her underlying vision” (ibid, 93). This assertion is something which I am unsure if my show will achieve, and I am even more unsure if that concerns me. I hope for the audience to recognise the ‘art’ in my show, but alternatively do not believe that will be un-achievable if they feel too ‘oppressed’ – a sensation I would be very surprised to hear they felt.
Excerpts from filename: FUTURFAX:
I like that: bankers, whores and acrobats all roasting together in Hell! Anyway, said the Vatican, “in charging interest, the usurer sells the borrower nothing that belongs to him. He sells only Time, which belongs to God.” Smart move! So the Church took over the activity, selling Eternal Time to the poor bastards. What a scam! Ushered in capitalism, materialism, and monetary personal power. Nothing sacred! … As they used to say.
Boy I remember way back then, the sense of triumph: capitalism won! Then capitalism was caught with its pants down, but there were no wormholes to crawl through. So here we are.
Neolithic Faust made a pact with the Devil. The Devil said “man is top of the heap” And Faust caught the ball and ran with it:
FOUR BILLION YEARS WENT INTO CREATING US!
WE’VE ARRIVED.
EVOLUTION IS FIRED!
GOD BREAKS THE MOLD.
WE ARE THE MASTERS.
GOD IS FIRED!
BEING THE RAISON D’ ETRE, THE SINE QUA NON, WE ARE EXEMPT FROM THE LAWS OF NATURE.
THE “LAW OF LIMITED COMPETITION” DOES NOT APPLY TO US.
WE MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD OUR ECOLOGICAL NICHE.
NO ROOM OR RIGHTS FOR ANY OTHERS.
EVERYTHING EXCEPT OUR FOOD AND THE FOOD OF OUR FOOD IS OUR ENEMY AND MUST BE EXTERMINATED.
WE:
KILL OFF EVERYTHING WE CAN’T EAT.
KILL OFF EVERYTHING THAT EATS WHAT WE EAT.
KILL OFF EVERYTHING THAT DOESN’T FEED WHAT WE EAT.
AND THEN WE KILL WHAT WE EAT.
THAT’S THE WAY THINGS ARE!
And the Devil rubbed his hands and said “Faust you are a good boy. I will give you fame, fortune and Eternal Youth!” And he kept his word. For we exploded in a supernova flash of civilisation, and we will never grow old because, at ten thousand years, we are dying in our youth!
Works Cited:
Jannarone, K. (2012) Artaud and His Double. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
Muller, H. (1979) The Hamletmachine. Translated by Dennis Redmond (2001) Available from http://theater.augent.be/file/13
Roth, M. (2000) Rachel Rosenthal. In: Bonney, J. (ed.) Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York, USA: Theatre Communications Group, 92-100.