SummerWorks 2012: Q&A With Theatre Run's Adam Paolozza

Adam Paolozza in Theatre Run’s production of Artaud: Un Portrait En Décomposition.

Antonin Artaud: crazy, brilliant, or both? TheatreRUN artistic director Adam Paolozza talks about his experiences co-writing and performing in Artaud: Un Portrait En Décomposition, a theatrical portrait of Artaud’s life on stage from August 10 at the SummerWorks Performance Festival. Read on to find out more about this fascinating French artist.

Theatromania: What inspired Artaud: Un Portrait En Décomposition?

AP: I’ve always been into Artaud’s ideas about theatre—in high school I read his most famous theoretical work The Theatre and its Double, where he lays out his theory of the theatre of cruelty. And I’ve always been fascinated by surrealism and Artaud was, however briefly, an “official” member of their gang. But it was while I was studying in Paris at École Jacques Lecoq that I discovered his poetry.

During one of the units of study at the school we would take words and poems and “move” them in the space, seeing what kind of movement and what kind of body is necessary to speak certain texts. It’s a non-psychological approach to textual interpretation. Lecoq loved to associate different writers with different natural elements and for him, Artaud was fire! So, we moved like fire and spoke Artaud’s text. This experience was hugely influential for me as a director and as an actor.

Then I got into Artaud’s life. What a crazy story! He was a true revolutionary in the metaphysical sense—he wanted a total cultural revolution, not just a political one. He was constantly in pain, suffering from neuralgia and later schizophrenia. His work is like a scream of pain and revolt; he wanted to awaken people into a poetic state, to rouse them out of what he called a living death by mediocrity and subservience to a bankrupt culture. And I was struck by the rapid physical deterioration he suffered in such a short life—in the 1920s he was a handsome, angelic movie star and by the 1940s, just before his death, he looked like a skeleton. He was ravaged by years of opium addiction and the 51 electroshocks that he received as “therapy” while he spent nine years in various mental asylums.

So,  I wanted to make a project that could speak to the power of his words and the painful experience of his life. I wanted to portray his mental illness in a complex, sensitive way. I wanted to give the audience a visceral experience of Artaud’s presence through the intermediary of my body which “stands in” for his. And I wanted to create the feeling of what it might have been like to know him in a personal way, with all the complications and ambiguities that this suggests.

Theatromania: How would you describe Antonin Artaud to someone who has never seen his work?

AP: Well, in his life he didn’t actually create much theatre work—he could never get the money together to produce what he wanted. He wrote about many things with an almost prophetic clairvoyance and perspicacity. He’s really more influential as an idea man and his ideas have had great influence on Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook and more modern directors like Jan Fabre and Romeo Castellucci, not to mention our own Daniel Brooks.

He is a complicated figure in the history of the 20th century, not just because of the audacity of his ideas but because of his madness. We’re forced to ask how can we accept his work as part of the cultural cannon when so often he violently attacks the very idea of culture itself? How can we assimilate a body of work, culturally and intellectually speaking, when it so often takes us towards the limits of what is commonly referred to as “normal” and “sane?” So, as a writer who was extremely controversial in his own time and who is now taught at universities all over the world, Artaud’s place in the history of art is a very ambiguous—and exciting—one.

But let me describe how we portray him in the show, which is also an attempt to introduce people to his life. The show is part docu-drama, part verbatim theatre and part performance poetry. We’ve taken poems and letters from Artaud and created a unique biographical “portrait” in his own words. The audience is put into an intimate space with Artaud’s language and thought and led into an encounter with powerful texts which have rarely, if ever, been performed in Canada.

The show is also highly physical: we’ve been working on a way to make the text and the body collide in an energetic encounter…this is a way for us to honour Artaud’s words and life. And by portraying his intimate relationships with several people, including famous writers such as Anais Nin (played Coleen MacPherson) we get to see his more intimate, human side and you get an image of the rich artistic life in Paris in the 20s, 30s and 40s…and the show is in French! But don’t worry, we’ve got surtitles for the anglophones.

Theatromania: What are some of the challenges you encountered with this piece?

AP: As an actor the major challenge of this piece is mastering Artaud’s language. I really wanted to create this piece in French, even though I am an anglophone and French is my second language. I felt Artaud’s words needed to be heard in his mother tongue and his original French is so much richer than the English translation of his work. So, in that respect it’s been quite a challenge to physically speak the text. But this challenge has allowed me a much more intimate, visceral experience, on a muscular as well as mental level, with Artaud’s words.

My director and co-writer, Michele Smith from Theatre Smith-Gilmour, was instrumental in helping me rise to this challenge. Michele has influenced a generation of theatre makers in Canada, including myself, with her sensitive, detailed work. She’s originally from France so her knowledge of the language and sensitivity as a  director allowed us to explore the material in a depth I couldn’t have achieved without her.

It’s also a challenge to get the word out to francophones to come and see our work. I think that there is great interest from their community but reaching them isn’t always obvious for an independent anglophone theatre company. And obviously it will be a challenge to get anglophones out. But that’s why we chose to do it at SummerWorks. We felt the festival audience would be more willing to take a chance on a crazy piece in French. And we’re the only French language show in the festival so we’ve got the wild card vibe going for us, as well.

Theatromania: What excites you most about this year’s SummerWorks Performance Festival?

We’re very excited to play this piece again to a Toronto audience. We did a small run in 2011 in co-production with Théâtre Français de Toronto at their Centre de Création but we just didn’t have the budget to create surtitles and to publicize like we should have. We didn’t have the audiences that we thought the show deserved. Then we toured the piece to China in November 2011 and played at an international festival to hundreds of people who spoke no English or French. The show was a huge success and during talk backs after we were really moved by people’s emotional and intellectual response to the show. So, we’re confident that there will be interest from a Toronto audience and with the English surtitles the show is accessible to all.

Theatromania: What’s next for TheatreRUN?

AP: Lot’s of things are in the pipeline! I’m working at the Tarragon next year as the Urjo Kareda resident where I’ll continue to develop The Double, our hit show from last season, as well as some new works. We’re going to tour SPENT to Dubai next season and possibly do another Toronto run of the piece. And there are new collaborations in the works with Ravi Jain from Why Not Theatre, Dan Watson from Ahuri Theatre and Lisa Marie DiLiberto from Fixt Point. So, you know, we’re just trying to stay busy and keep it real!

Catch Artaud: Un Portrait En Décomposition from August 10 at the Scotiabank Theatre at Pia Bouman. Visit SummerWorks.ca for more information and to buy tickets.

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