ABSTRACT
Antonin Artaud's provocative collection of essays, The Theatre and its Double , is a call to arms for those who care about theatre. ‘Life itself is in decline’, he announces in the opening lines; 1 but the theatre, which could be a source of significance and vitality, has been stifled and suppressed: ‘we have for too long been told theatre is all lies and illusion.’ 2 Certainly, the claim that theatre is bound up with untruth, with falsehood and illusion, is long-standing: one ancient source reports that the very first tragedian, Thespis, was called a liar by Solon, the renowned Athenian lawmaker, for making things seem other than they are. 3 In a sense, Plato's complaints (which we explored in the previous chapter) are a version of this. But even without Plato's metaphysical commitments, the idea that theatre is somehow mendacious or illusory has echoed through the ages.
