Manifeste du théâtre de la cruauté

The "Manifesto of the Theatre of Cruelty" was written by Antonin Artaud, a French dramatist, poet, and actor. Artaud proposed a "theatre of cruelty" as a replacement for traditional theatre, aiming to create a primitive, ceremonial experience that would liberate the human subconscious. His theories, collected in The Theatre and Its Double, called for a direct communion between actor and audience, using gestures, sounds, and striking visuals to bypass rational thought and reveal the audience's inner world. While Artaud's own plays were not widely successful, his ideas profoundly influenced avant-garde theatre and playwrights like Samuel Beckett and Jean Genet.12