V. Oriental and Occidental Theater Summary and Analysis

Artaud asserts that in the Occidental version of theater, words are everything. The problem is that Occidental culture imposes the supremacy of speech over everything that takes place on a theater stage; consequently this brand of theater relegates the mise en scène to an inferior level of the art. If theater is to be restored to its original intention, as an art that is not dependent on any other form of expression, it becomes necessary for these roles to be reversed. Because it speaks directly to the mind instead of the reason, the art of mise en scène needs to create a visual, plastic materialization of speech which will then be played on stage as part of the spectacle.

The author says that the problem at the heart of Occidental theater...