Healing in Antonin Artaud's Theatre

Abstract

Antonin Artaud was a distinguished French director, actor, theatre theorist and poet. Artaud's reputation in the theatre world is fundamentally due to his promotion of a series of "anti" theatre theories including, but not limited to, the "theatre of cruelty", which highlights the aesthetics of the therapeutic aspects of Artaud's theatre. The use of theatre as therapy for self-awareness and improvement of the individual's physical and mental condition is a value that has been in play since its emergence, and Artaud's influence on the development of theatre therapy is mentioned in the book Drama Therapy. It is conceivable that the healing presence of Artaud's theatre is obvious and essential. in this paper, we will take Artaud's theatre theory as the main body of discussion, and take three key words-"language, metaphysics, and cruelty" as the starting point to elaborate the healing properties of Artaud's theatre.