A Play of the Double

Taking into account that, in Antonin Artaud’s vision, theatre, in order to be revived, has to enter a play of the double, the present paper aims at discussing, succinctly, the notion of the Artaudian double, putting high emphasis on dream. So, theatre is dream, plague, cruelty, alchemical operation, ritual, exorcism, experiment. The link between the physical and the spiritual, in Artaudian metaphors, involves a transfer / transport of the actor and spectator from the lower levels of understanding to higher levels or from the lower energies of the body to subtle energies. When referring to the plague, Christopher Innes calls it a tired metaphor; moreover, he finds that Artaudian metaphors seem to be confusing or to generate confusion in the actor or spectator. Nonetheless, Artaud’s metaphors are revelatory, metaphysical, not asking for a horizontal, rational understanding, but for a vertical, speculative understanding.