TEHRAN – “The Theater and Its Double” by French poet and playwright Antonin Artaud has been published in Persian by Qatreh.

Nasrin Khattat is the translator of the book originally published in 1938.

A collection of manifestos, “The Theater and Its Double” is the fullest statement of the ideas of Antonin Artaud. 

“We cannot go on prostituting the idea of the theater, the only value of which is in its excruciating, magical relation to reality and danger,” he wrote. 

He fought vigorously against encroaching conventionalism he found anathema to the very concept of theater. 

He sought to use theater to transcend writing, “to break through the language in order to touch life.”

It was published as part of Gallimard’s Métamorpheses Collection in an edition limited to 400 copies.

The book consists of Artaud’s collected essays on theatre dating from the early thirties, many of which were published in Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF). 

Artaud was in “a near catatonic state in the mental hospital of Sainte-Anne” in Paris when the book was finally published. 

He had been able to correct the text’s proofs between his journeys to Ireland and Mexico.

Artaud was a visual artist, essayist, actor and theater director. He is widely recognized as one of the major figures of the European avant-garde. 

In particular, he had a profound influence on twentieth-century theatre through his conceptualization of the Theatre of Cruelty.

Known for his raw, surreal and transgressive work, his texts explored themes from the cosmologies of ancient cultures, philosophy, the occult, mysticism and indigenous Mexican and Balinese practices.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Antonin Artaud’s book “The Theater and Its Double”.

MMS/YAW