Crisis’ as the Epistemolgy of European Experimental Theatre: Re-viewing Antonin Artaud’s The Theatre and Its Double

Abstract

Theatre as an art form in Europe has been founded on Aristotelian principle of fundamental ‘conflict’ as the root of all dramatic actions which constitutes the essence/soul of drama/theatre.  The European theatre in twentieth century entered a new era where it attained a complete divorce from dramatic literature and claimed an independent and autonomous status as an art form. Theorists and directors in their respective modes of performance reject the existing dramatic tradition. It evolved with a poetics of its own thus creating a structure of independent categories and terms of analysis. The term Experimental Theatre consolidates different modes of theatre i.e. Brechtian theatre, Theatre of Cruelty, Theatre of the Absurd, Poor theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed etc. into a single identity. This evolution of theatre as an independent art form in Europe seems to be a result of a new theatrical aesthetics that has been structured on a principle of ‘metaphysical crisis’ which constitutes the nucleus of all theatrical performances.