Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud was born in Marseilles, France in 1896. His father, Antoine-Roi was a ship owner and both of his parents were immigrants from Smyrna (present day Izmir in Turkey). His mother gave birth to 9 children, but she lost 6 during childbirth/early childhood. At the age of 5, Artaud was diagnosed with suspected meningitis which, at the time, had no known cure. However, after an extensive period of hospitalization, he survived but was weakened from his ordeal. Artaud became unstable and temperamental, and his parents arranged for several expensive residencies in French sanatoriums. He emerged from this period with an excellent literary background due to the extensive reading he did while under the doctors’ care, but also a lifelong laudanum addiction.

Artaud suffered a mental breakdown at the age of 19 and mental illness (coupled with an addiction to opiates) would continue to affect him for the rest of his life. He spent much of his later years in and out of various psychiatric hospitals. In 1948, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and died just a couple of months later. He was believed to have died from an overdose of chloral hydrate, although it is not known whether he was aware of the drug’s lethality.

Key Dates & Events

• 1921 - Artaud becomes an apprentice of the director Charles Dullin at the Théâtre de l'Atelier.
• 1926 - Artaud co-founds the Theatre Alfred Jarry.
• 1927 - Artaud is expelled from the Surrealist Movement.
• 1931 - Artaud is highly influenced by a Balinese dance performance while attending the Paris Colonial Exposition.
• 1931 - Artaud publishes his first manifesto on the Theatre of Cruelty.
• 1935 - Artaud adapts Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Les Cenci for the stage.
• 1935 - Artaud travels to Mexico and lives with the Tarahumaran people.
• 1938 - Artaud publishes The Theatre and Its Double.