BARRAULT AND ARTAUD
towards the exterior o' a depth of latent cruelty by which
all
the
perverse possibilities of the mind are localized in one individual or
in a people." Curiously enough this theory of Artaud's has influenced
the existentialist theater. But what the existentialist theater ignores
is the role of hero or "sorcerer" at the core of Artaud's theater.
Sartre's characters, unlike Chekhov's or Odets', are not duped
by normal family surroundings or illusions of importance. The useless–
ness of their existence is not only shown by what they are in society,
but in their realization and overt expression of it, and when the coward
in
Huis Clos
makes
his
entrance and demands
uou sont les bourreaux?"
the endlessness of his suffering is perfectly clear to him. The Negro
in
La Putain R espectueuse
hasn't the slightest illusion of altering his
condition as do the three Negroes in the three recent Broadway pro–
ductions dealing with the same problem. It is refreshing to see the
traditionally French lucid consciousness in process of examining itself,
but Sartre's characters have only a complex of thoughts and reflexes
which continue without end, a cycle of absurdity, and the intensity
is that of a neurotic obsession. With Sartre there is no hero; the
victim never sees the reason for his suffering, and in fact never
seems to evolve at all. Sartre is presenting plays that deal with
uangoisse/'
"cruelty," and "absurdity" .as abstract ideas only. The
actors seem unpowerful and mechanical, and the convention remains
as illusory .as ever.
But when Artaud speaks of the theater as
ufleau vengeur"
he
is referring to the medium. It is the voice that speaks the word, the
pure use of theater which will influence the spectator. In praising
the oriental theater he says, "It is a theater which eliminates the
author to the profit of what in our theatrical jargon is called the
director, but here he becomes a sort of magic relegator, a master of
sacred ceremonies." Barrault might be thus considered as a master of
magic ceremonies, and priest of a new convention. His production
of
The Trial
is an example of a case where a director in search of
a play is forced to create his own, and the emphasis is on the pro–
duction rather than the text. With Gide he has atTanged thd episodes
into dramatic form. All the chaos and absurdity which Sartre offers
through ideas, Barrault offers through voice, mime, lighting, and
decor. The dream atmosphere is created by the timelessness and
irrational order of the scene sequences, the crowd movements provide
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