This article is for those who want to learn more about the Theatre of Cruelty and how Lars Øyno carries on Artaud’s extreme project. In the accompanying film, he talks about Artaud’s vision and how he works himself. The film includes excerpts from what is perhaps his most controversial production, Theatre and Science from 2007. Viewers who are uncomfortable with nudity combined with intense theatrical expression should not watch the film.
After the success of The Ugly Duckling, Øyno embarked on a bold and daring new project, but this time with an all-female cast. He delved deep into Artaud’s vision of a ritualistic, physical, and existential theatre, and the risk was high. The production was inspired by two of Artaud’s most radical texts: To Alienate the Actor and Theatre and Science, and became a staged act of resistance against the power of rationality and patriarchy.
Eleven female performers take center stage in a physically and vocally demanding performance. Almost without costumes and largely naked throughout, they expose both body and presence as a form of radical honesty. This exposure is not erotic but existential — a direct, bodily challenge to the audience’s assumptions about identity, control, and vulnerability. That the performers carry this out with such powerful presence speaks to deep artistic discipline and a shared trust in the necessity of the project.
Øyno does not use the performers as characters in a narrative but as living instruments in a rhythmic, ritualized language. Through movement, vocal sound, and sculptural tableaux, Artaud’s idea of theatre as the language of the body is reborn: a space where the unconscious and the repressed can emerge. It is not a theatre that seeks to explain, but to confront and transform, a theatre that acts directly on the senses and the nervous system.
By allowing female bodies to lead this confrontation with the limitations of intellect and society, Theatre and Science revives Artaud’s call for a theatre that shocks and heals by opening wounds.
The performance stands as a courageous and uncompromising expression of the modern Theatre of Cruelty: physical, metaphysical, and deeply human.
Lars Øyno is a very courageous theatre man. Still, I think that the 11 women participating in this production surpass him by a wide margin. Very brave, and very well done!
⚠️ Artistic Content – Viewer Discretion Advised
The following video excerpts from the Theatre of Cruelty include artistic portrayals of nudity and pain, used as part of an existential exploration of the human condition. This content may not be suitable for children or viewers who are sensitive to intense physical theatre. Watch with an open mind – or not at all.
Featured image © Eldar Einarson
