Artaud

Born	Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud 4 September 1896 Marseille, France
Died	4 March 1948 (aged 51) Paris, France
Cause of death	Intestinal Cancer
Nationality	French
Education	Studied at the Collège du Sacré Couer
Occupation	Theatre director, poet, actor, artist
Known for	Theatre of Cruelty
Notable work(s)	The Theatre and Its Double
Style	Erotica

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud)

Artaud is famous for his experimental theatre technique called "Theatre Of Cruelty" which was a technique which pushed performers and audience to their absolute limits to create an emotional committed performance. He did this by using the following techniques in most of his work. 

These techniques are made more poignant due to the mental wellbeing of Artaud:

"He spent a great deal of his life addicted to drugs or locked up in asylums or attempting numerous, unsuccessful, detoxification programmes; or he was to be found acting in films, or being expelled from the Surrealists, or disappearing into the hills of Mexico in search of the Tarahumara Indians, or arriving in Ireland with a walking stick he claimed to have belonged to Saint Patrick and eventually being deported, it is a wonder he had the time or lucidity to write anything at all."

(http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/images/antonin_artaud_tcm4-123683.pdf)

Here are some quotes from Artaud: 

“Never tire yourself more than necessary, even if you have to found a culture on the fatigue of your bones.”

“There is in every madman
a misunderstood genius
whose idea
shining in his head
frightened people
and for whom delirium was the only solution
to the strangulation
that life had prepared for him.” 

“I abandon myself to the fever of dreams, in search for new laws.” 

“I call for actors burning at the stakes, laughing at the flames.”