Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) was a French writer, actor, and theater theorist whose concept of the "Theatre of Cruelty" sought to overwhelm audiences with sound, light, and physical intensity rather than dialogue and plot. His 1938 essay collection The Theatre and Its Double became one of the most influential texts in twentieth-century performance theory.

Institutionalized for much of his later life, Artaud also produced radio work, drawings, and writings on language, the body, and madness that anticipated later experiments in sound poetry and performance art. His final radio piece, To Have Done with the Judgment of God, was banned from broadcast before its scheduled 1948 airing.