2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

intense collage of excess and vulgarity, and explodes into a “furious orgy” from beneath partially raised curtains. Amongst the actors are a “large number of dummies” who contribute to the chaos of the moment. The unnamed guests parade the space in a patchwork of extremes- some laughing, some sobbing, some marching, and another dancing. This visual assault is paired with the sounding of deafening roman church bells supposed to correspond with the rhythm of the scene (Artaud, et al., 1972) . This description demonstrates an application of Artaud’s cruelty. The scene portrayed is a collage of vulgar imagery, stark contrasts in emotion, and loud noises, all of which intend to disorient the audience. The convention of exaggerated extensive gesture is particularly noticeable. However, the play falls very far short of separating itself from its reliance on the text, which was arguably the principle motivation of the Theatre of the Cruelty. The motivations of Les Cenci (as a performance) seems to come from a concern with the issues much more grounded in reality, speaking much more in the language of text than in the language between thought and gesture Artaud described. This performance feels more like traditional production informed by the Theatre of Cruelty, than a Theatre of Cruelty production informed by a traditional text. Of course, Les Cenci was not meant to represent the Theatre of Cruelty, it was more an exhibition of the tone of his theatre for the Audience of Paris (Esslin, 1976). Through his staging of the play, Artaud likely intended to raise the funds to produce his intended premiere of the Theatre of Cruelty, called The Conquest of Mexico (Esslin, 1976). Unfortunately, this would never come to pass.

In the end, Artaud was a victim of his means. He had to balance his revolutionary ideas for

10