Browse Undergrad Subjects

     A 

Abortion
Accounting
Advertising
Africa
African-American Studies
Aging
Agriculture
American Indian Studies
Anthropology
Archaeology
Architecture
Argumentative
Art: Artists (Alphabetized)
Art: General
Become an Affiliate and Earn $$$
Biographies (Alphabetized)
Book Reviews (Non-Fiction) (Alphabetized)
Business: Companies (Alphabetized)
Business: General
Business: Industries (Alphabetized)
Business: International
Business: Small
California
Canada
Caribbean
Child Abuse
China
Communication: Journalism
Communication: Language & Speech
Communication: Media
Communication: Non-Verbal
Communication: Television
Communication: Television & Children
Communism
Computer Science
Consumerism
Criminal Justice: General
Criminal Justice: Juvenile Delinquency
Criminal Justice: Police Science
Criminal Justice: Prisons
Cuba
Death & Dying: Euthanasia
Death & Dying: General
Death & Dying: Suicide
Drama: American
Drama: English
Drama: World
Drugs: Alcohol
Drugs: General
Economics: Banking
Economics: Economists (Alphabetized)
Economics: General
Economics: Inflation
Economics: International Trade
Economics: Macroeconomics
Economics: Microeconomics
Economics: Taxation
Education: Administration
Education: Curriculum
Education: General
Education: Higher
Education: Physical
Education: Psychology
Education: Reading
Education: Special
Education: Teaching Methods
Education: Theory
Energy: General
Energy: Nuclear
Energy: Solar
Environmental Studies
Evolution
Family & Marriage
Films: Artists (Alphabetized)
Films: General
Finance: Companies (Alphabetized)
Finance: General
Former Soviet Union: Post-1990
France
Gender & Sexuality
Geography
Germany
History: Ancient Greek & Roman
History: European
History: Great Britain
History: U.S. (After 1865)
History: U.S. (Before 1865)
History: U.S. Presidency
History: U.S. Presidents (Alphabetized)
Homosexuality
Immigration
India
Indonesia
International Relations: Arms Control
International Relations: Cold War
International Relations: Non-U.S.
International Relations: U.S.
Japan
Jewish Studies
Korea
Labor
Latin America
Law: Business
Law: Capital Punishment
Law: General
Law: International & Non-U.S.
Law: Supreme Court
Leadership
Literature, American: Authors (Alphabetized)
Literature, American: Faulkner
Literature, American: Fitzgerald
Literature, American: General
Literature, American: Hawthorne
Literature, American: Hemingway
Literature, American: Melville
Literature, American: Poe
Literature, American: Steinbeck
Literature, American: Twain
Literature, English: Authors (Alphabetized)
Literature, English: Chaucer
Literature, English: Conrad
Literature, English: Dickens
Literature, English: General
Literature, English: Joyce
Literature, English: Lawrence
Literature, English: Shakespeare
Literature, English: Swift
Literature, General: Children
Literature, General: Classic (Greek & Roman)
Literature, General: Russian
Literature, General: World
Management: General
Management: Japanese
Management: Motivation
Management: Theory
Management: Women
Marketing: Companies (Alphabetized)
Marketing: General
Marketing: Plans
Mathematics
Medical: Aids
Medical: Dentistry
Medical: Diseases & Disorders (Alphabetized)
Medical: General
Medical: Nursing
Mexican-American Studies
Mexico
Middle East: Egypt
Middle East: General
Middle East: O.P.E.C.
Military
Music: Classical
Music: General
Mythology
Nutrition
Parapsychology/Occult
Philosophy: Ancient Greek
Philosophy: Descartes
Philosophy: Eastern
Philosophy: General
Philosophy: Kant
Philosophy: Sartre
Poetry: American
Poetry: English
Poetry: Milton
Poetry: World
Political Science: Elections & Campaigns
Political Science: Foreign
Political Science: Lobbyists & Pressure Groups
Political Science: Machiavelli
Political Science: Mill
Political Science: Political Theory
Political Science: U.S.
Psychology: Behaviorism
Psychology: Child & Adolescent
Psychology: Disorders
Psychology: Dreams
Psychology: Experimental
Psychology: Freud
Psychology: General
Psychology: Jung
Psychology: Physiology
Psychology: Piaget
Psychology: Rogers
Psychology: Social
Psychology: Testing
Psychology: Therapies
Public Administration: General
Public Administration: Government Agencies (Alphabetized)
Racism
Real Estate
Recreation & Leisure
Religion: Eastern
Religion: General
Religion: Islam
Religion: The Bible
Research: Completed Studies (With Statistics & Results)
Research: Designs & Proposals
Research: Statistics & Methodology
Russia: Pre-1917 Revolution
Science: Astronomy
Science: Biology
Science: General
Science: Genetics
Sociology: Durkheim
Sociology: General
Sociology: Marx
Sociology: Social Problems
Sociology: Social Theory
Sociology: Social Welfare
Sociology: Weber
Soviet Union: 1917-1990
Sports: Drugs
Sports: General
Technology
Transportation: Automotive
Transportation: Aviation
Transportation: General
Transportation: Railroads
Urban Studies
Vietnam
Women Studies
 

"UBU ROI" (DIRECTED BY ANTONIN ARTAUD).
  Term Paper ID:26804
Essay Subject:
Examines Artaud's interpretation of Alfred Jarry's play, focusing on the "theater of cruelty" & ideas of Jerzy Grotowski.... More...
4 Pages / 900 Words
3 sources, 13 Citations, MLA Format
$16.00

Return to List of Papers


Paper Abstract:
Examines Artaud's interpretation of Alfred Jarry's play, focusing on the "theater of cruelty" & ideas of Jerzy Grotowski.

Paper Introduction:
Antonin Artaud's theater of cruelty techniques are springboards for the director's imagination. His theories, based in part on Cambodian and Balinese dance, extol a form of "total theater," where visual images, gesture, light, sound, and noise take precedence over the written or spoken word. This potent combination is used to disturb the subconscious of the audience and kindle their imaginations. These images are often shocking, but as Artaud explains, "We are not free, and the sky can still fall on our heads; and the theater exists to remind us of this fact" (Artaud 79). Alfred Jarry's King Ubu displays "the spirit of profound anarchy which is the root of all poetry" (Artaud 42), and this can be seen in Act IV of the play as Pa Ubu states, We'll stay on top of this hill and we'll not be so

Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.


Artaud's "objective unforeseen" is a perfect directorial device forKing Ubu. Antonin Artaud's theater of cruelty techniques are springboards forthe director's imagination. These actors are super-responsive, so in-tune with their physical beingsthat even thought cannot interrupt their reflexes. To truly follow the concepts of Grotowski, this production of Ubu Roimust come out of a workshop of actors trained in self-revelation. As Grotowski would put it, no "clownish or cabaret stereotypes"(Grotowski 15). I recommend you to load your rifles with as many bullets as they will hold, since eight bullets can kill eight Russians and that's just so many more I won't have on my back (Jarry 54).Artaud makes clear his own view of language when he writes, To make metaphysics out of a spoken language is to make the language express what it does not ordinarily express; to make use of it in a new, exceptional, and unaccustomed fashion; to reveal its possibilities for producing physical shock; to divide and distribute it actively in space; to deal with intonations in an absolutely concrete manner, restoring their power to shatter as well as to manifest something; to turn against language and its basely utilitarian, one could say alimentary, sources, against its trapped-beast origins; and finally, to consider language as the form of incantation (Artaud 46).The language in Ubu Roi tests the limits of language in much this way. There is no stage. Artaud further explains his view of theater when he writes, Cruelty: Without an element of cruelty at the root of every spectacle, the theater is not possible. His theories, based in part on Cambodian andBalinese dance, extol a form of "total theater," where visual images,gesture, light, sound, and noise take precedence over the written or spokenword. Towards a Poor Theatre. Theseare "holy actors" who, through a period of intense training, have ridthemselves by a process of elimination of their habitual screening devices. As Grotowskistates, "Art is a ripening, an evolution, an uplifting which enables us toemerge from darkness into a blaze of light" (Grotowski 256). Everything is so intimate, so shared with the spectator, it isas if they are partners in the play. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968.Jarry, Alfred. This production is in a chamber theater. Our "theater of cruelty" production has the spectator in the centersurround by the spectacle of the play (Artaud 81). In this production of Ubu Roi, theactors appear to physically transform themselves in close view of theaudience. Grotowski's approach to theater centers on the actor. Fabricated Beings, puppets, mannequins, robots, and cyborgs of adisquieting nature all seem a natural enhancement of the grotesqueries ofthe Jarry play. The disquieting appearances of embodiments of thecharacters' basest instincts in the most unexpected moments enhances theabsurd humor of the play. Images of crime, love, war, andmadness all assault the audience in a revolving spectacle which spreads its"visual and sonorous outbursts" (Artaud 86) over the entirety, reignitingits tired psyche with "intense and sudden shocks to revive ourunderstanding" (Artaud 86). In our present state of degeneration it is through the skin that metaphysics must be made to re-enter our minds (Artaud 99).The schoolboy cruelty of King Ubu, its invented language, and itsoutrageous humor make it an apt subject for an Artaud-likeapproach. This potent combination is used to disturb the subconscious of theaudience and kindle their imaginations. The Ubu Plays. The vocal demands on the actors are extreme as theycreate new sounds, new noise, new vibrations from the text. Sound and violentphysical images swirl about the viewers. "Humor as Destruction" is an important part of this vivid productionas well (Artaud 87). Theactors are very close to the audience. I shall remain in your midst like an animated citadel, and the rest of you will gravitate around me. Works CitedArtaud, Antonin. Costumes are ritualistic; masks are often but not always used;musical instruments enhance the work, from ancient drums to the newestsynthesizer's sonic extremes; and lasers and very special lights play theirpart as the "fusillades of fiery arrows" (Artaud 95) that Artaud dreamed.All can now be realized with our current technology. These images are often shocking,but as Artaud explains, "We are not free, and the sky can still fall on ourheads; and the theater exists to remind us of this fact" (Artaud 79). The commonality of Artaud and Grotowski is the element of shock, withArtaud willing to use whatever outside element he can find to create ashock, and with Grotowski plowing the actor's body, mind, and soul tocreate a human instrument capable of invoking that shock in a sharedcommunion with the spectator. In histheater, gone are the outside trappings of the previous production, meaningno masks, no mannequins, no fancy music, no synthesizers, and no laserlighting. Alfred Jarry's King Ubu displays "the spirit of profound anarchywhich is the root of all poetry" (Artaud 42), and this can be seen in ActIV of the play as Pa Ubu states, We'll stay on top of this hill and we'll not be so silly as to venture down. The physical skill, vocal powers, andreactivity of the performers carry the play and build art. New York: Grove Press, 1968. In Grotowski's theater, there are two reasons forexploration: One is to "define what is distinctly theater, what separatesthis activity from other categories of performance and spectacles"(Grotowski 15), and the second is to "consider the personal and scenictechnique of the actor as the core of theater art" (Grotowski 15). New York: Grove Press, 1958.Grotowski, Jerzy. Jarry already has created characters who revealtheir intellectual deformities as physical embodiments, and the moredisquieting their transformation, the more off-putting. The Theater and Its Double. They are actors withbodies "freed from resistance," and so, open to revelation.

If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:

Search for:


or

Click here to request an essay written just for you.



 
 

Dissertation Station
11270 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90230