Original title: Antonin Artaud Le Theatre et son Double, Edition Gallimard 1964.
Antonin Artaud is one of the most controversial personalities in the world theatre. The theatre of cruelty as a concept and as theatre practice stemmed from Artaud’s theoretical thought – which was vehemently demonstrative – and from his directing and theatre work. Artaud’s words: Before I return to questions of culture, I believe that the world is hungry and that it does not care much about culture are a stumbling block even today to many artists searching for a public which will consume their art. Artaud’s thought about the theatre was collected in several important theoretical texts which he published in the period between 1929 and 1938, when he brought them tohether under a common title, The Theatre and Its Double. He advocated the theatre as a place of spiritual transformation of man by his liberation from the most covert and dark wishes and desires, and this concept is still very much alive in the art and poetics of many directors and performers today. The Croatian translation of Artaud’s theoretical work, essential to the understanding of theatre poetics from the beginning of 20th century to the present day, is a major contribution to theatrology and theatre practice in Croatia.
The book was published with funding support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, the French Embassy in Croatia, and the French Institute in Zagreb.