Today is Antonin Artaud‘s birthday. We draw your attention to our 2011 Artaud birthday posting – here
(See also our postings here and here)
Here is a link to an intriguing 1993 documentary – en français – “La Véritable histoire d’Artaud Le Mômo“ – Gerard Mordillat and Jerome Prieur spent two years tracking down, one by one, the friends of Artaud, who had previously refused to talk about him. Paule Thévenin, Marthe Robert, Henri Thomas, Henri Pichette, and Rolande Plevel offer revealing insights.
Looking ahead to the Spring of next year [2015 (sic)], Canadian theatre-director, actor, performer, Christian LaPointe is planning to read non-stop the entire Artaud oeuvre! – (you’ll be able to follow along on-line) – all 8,517 pages!
LaPointe: “Dans le théâtre de la cruauté, tu as cette idée du performeur qui est chauffé à blanc, qui se rend jusqu’aux limites de ses capacités, qui devient comme un cri qui sort du feu.”…”Si tu viens voir quelqu’un qui lit depuis trois jours sans arrêt, il y a quelque chose de cruel dans ça.“) – “In the Theater of Cruelty, you have this idea of the performer who is white hot, who goes to the limits of his capacity, who is like a cry that comes out of the fire”..”If you come to see someone reading for three days straight [as will be the case with LaPointe’s performance], there is something cruel in it”)
[*** 2015 update – the Artaud marathon – he didn’t quite succeed, but he did pretty well – 2,528 pages!
There’s some sections from it – here]
In the meantime, there is also – and always – this – the unforgettable voice of Le Momo (from “To Have Done With The Judgement of God” (“Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu”) (still, after all these years, mighty disturbing!)