Antonin Artaud, what made him who he was?

- At the age of 14 Antonin Artaud wrote his first poem which was dedicated to his grandmother who passed away in 1910. However, his first published poem was in 1916 when he was aged 20. Both his grandmother and Sister died roughly around the same time, therefore could that have impacted Antonin Artaud and his fight with depression?

- 1918 was Antonin Artaud's first use of drugs (laudanum, i.e. opium) I believe this only made matters worse with his depression.

- In 1924 a lot happened both positively and negatively for Antonin Artaud. He made his first screen performance in 'Faits Divers' and plus he also published his first majorly important text on the theatre which was called 'L evolution du decor'. However, September of that year came the death of Antonin Artaud's father.

- 1932 was the year that Antonin Artaud introduced the first manifesto for a theatre of cruelty. He tries to tackle his drug addiction with treatment which then  becomes an annual occurrence. The following year he prepares a second manifesto for the theatre of cruelty.


Antonin Artaud is a very amazing but also interesting theatre practitioner who also explored writing such as poetry as well as exploring theatre. I admire him as a person as well as a theatre practitioner as I think he lived a very tough life. He has suffered from a high level of depression throughout his whole life but mainly in the early stages of his life. Both his grandmother and sister both died around the same time in 1906-1910 and I believe this had a massive impact on Antonin Artaud and his fight with depression throughout childhood. He spent a lot of his time especially while he was still young in a mental institution where he was battling his depression for various amounts of years. As a practitioner Antonin Artaud was very successful within his career as he managed to do many theatre shows/performances as well as doing screen performances. I think that as an actor he was very successful throughout his career however, I believe that he had a lot going on in his life that distracted him from theatre and acting, as I believe that Antonin Artaud had a lot more to give within his career as an actor. I thought he didn't live up to his full potential as an actor, director and even practitioner.