View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Artaud say diminishes the value of the theater?
(a) Gesture.
(b) Metaphysics.
(c) Psychology.
(d) Music.

2. What does Artaud say serves as a copy, or double, of a life that does not exist?
(a) Theater.
(b) Poetry.
(c) Alchemy.
(d) Art.

3. Artaud asserts that in the Occidental version of theater, _____ are everything.
(a) Costumes.
(b) Words.
(c) Sounds.
(d) Gestures.

4. Where does the theater of cruelty place the spectator?
(a) In the center of the spectacle.
(b) In the minds of the gods.
(c) At a distance.
(d) At the edge of the stage.

5. The biggest obstacle standing in the way of a complete and fundamental renewal of the art of theater is the respect and admiration that we have for the what?
(a) Directors.
(b) Classic texts.
(c) Actors.
(d) Music.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Oriental and Occidental Theater," Artaud writes, "It is not a matter of suppressing _____ in the theater but of changing its role, and especially of reducing its position."

2. Artaud suggests that in order to take language to a metaphysical level, it must be reduced to what?

3. The author says that the problem at the heart of Occidental theater is that western art and culture systematically confuse art with what?

4. Where is the painting Artaud speaks of in "Metaphysics and the Mise en Scene"?

5. Artaud remarks that the problem is that "all true feeling in _____ is untranslatable; translating it would be betraying and dissimulating it."

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the link between art and culture in the Occidental theater? How must this change, according to Artaud?

2. How does Artaud describe the gestures of the Balinese Theater? How are they "understandable?"

3. What is the "perversion" of the theater of the west, according to the author?

4. How does Artaud associate culture and art?

5. What does "gold" represent in Artaud's analogy of "The Alchemical Theater"?

6. What does Artaud write of change and civilization regarding the theater in "No More Masterpieces"?

7. How does the author describe the effects of a plague on civilization?

8. What are the author's feelings about psychology and the theater? What of poetry?

9. What is the principle limitation of the current theater, as described by the author in "Metaphysics and the Mise en Scene"?

10. What does Artaud say in reference to totems in his Preface?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 948 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample