Antonin Artaud and the plague. The sacred in the Theater of Cruelty.

Abstract

The essay begins by reviewing some passages from "Heliogabalus or the crowned anarchist"
(1934), where Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) personified in the Roman protagonist gives an
account of the state of decay and organic and sociocultural decay of the West, particularly
the theater. The reflections shared here are based on the author's literary works, such as
poems, letters and dramas mainly, especially from "The theater and its double" (1938), "The
theater and the plague" (1938) and the aforementioned "Heliogábalo or the crowned
anarchist", the three originated from the darkest and most irrational of the western
tradition, in which the plague is used as a metaphysical correlate on which decadence looms
over its inhabitants and with no possible spatiotemporal antidote within reach with which to
deal with it satisfactorily. Following Artaud, the text proposes actions capable of putting into
crisis the fundamental values and principles on which the false certainties that have

historically produced Truth mimetized with Tradition, framed in repetition, imitation, re-
presentation and various dualist positions.