June 4, 2006, V4

Artaud has become the presiding figure for me in thinking about performance and especially V4, and retroactively V3 as well

here is a bit from an introduction to a collection of his work, speaking of a lecture at the Sorbonne about "The Theatre and the Plague" described by Anais Nin:

...Then imperceptibly almost he let go of the thread we were following and began to act out dying by plague. No one quite knew when it began .. his face was contorted wth anguish, one could see the perspiration dampening his hair. His eyes dilated, his muscles became cramped, his fingers struggled to retain their felxibility. He made one feel the parched and burning throat, the pains, the fever, the fire in the guts. He was in agony. He was screaming, He was delerious. He was enacting his own death... At first people gasped. And then they began to laugh. Everyone was laughing! They hissed. Then, one by one, they began to leave ... Artaud went on, until the last gasp. And stayed on the floor. Then when the hall had emptied of all but a small group of friends, he walked straight up to me and kissed me hand. He asked me to go to a cafe with him. He spat out his anger. "They always want to hear ABOUT, they want to hear an objective conference on the threatre and the plague, and I want to give them the experience itself, I wan to give them the plague itself, so they will be terrified, and awaken. I want to awaken them. The do not realize THEY ARE DEAD."  ¶ 1:48 PM