Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

the defunct images of the old Myths, shows that it can extract the forces which strugglewithin them” (85). Thus the new theatre would distance itself from traditional narrativesand familiar images, and instead aim to expose the spiritual and intellectual struggleinside each person that is hidden by civilization. This is the cruelty Artaud names, theexposure of the bubbling mass of anarchy that lurks behind rules and convention. Heexplains:it is not the cruelty we can exercise upon each other by hacking at eachother’s bodies, carving up our personal anatomies, or, like Assyrianemperors, sending parcels of human ears, noses, or neatly detachednostrils through the mail, but the much more terrible and necessary crueltywhich things can exercise against us. We are not free. And the sky can stillfall on our heads. And the theater has been created to teach us that first ofall. (79)He theorizes Theater of Cruelty as a psychological and spiritual revelation, centered oncreative new images, narratives, and subject matter.This new subject matter for theatre is one way to delve into the human psyche, butArtaud also argues that another way is to disrupt the traditional Western division of actorand audience. Instead of sitting distanced from the action in the auditorium, with bothactor and audience in separate spheres, the spectator of Theater of Cruelty is placed at thecenter of the action, surrounded by sounds, lights, and spectacle (81). On one hand, thiswill help disrupt any audience expectations based on the formal conventions ofprofessional theatre that maintain a strict actor/audience divide, and allow spectators to184