The Immanence of the Sacred: Antonin Artaud’s Meta-physical Theatre

Abstract

The article examines Antonin Artaud’s transformation of theatrical thought through his critique of Western logocentrism and representation. From the experience of the Théâtre Alfred Jarry to the discovery of Balinese theatre and the journey among the Tarahumara, Artaud conceives a “meta-physical theatre” as a plane of pure immanence where the scenic event becomes a producer of reality. Rejecting the theatre of words and the subordination to the text, the Theatre of Cruelty emerges as a performative rite in which gesture, sound, and body form an autonomous and generative language. The Mexican experience radicalizes this vision: the sacred reveals itself not as transcendence but as an immanent force inscribed in matter, anticipating Deleuze’s notion of the “Body without Organs” and redefining theatre as a cosmogonic act of regeneration of the real.