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CREATION OF CRUELTY - REFLECTIONS ON THE RITES
OF PASSAGE’IN EDWARD ALBEE’S PLAY
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
——~<~o»—___
ANIKO LUKACS
The purpose of this essay is to point out a possible connection between Antonin
Artaud’s Theater of Cruelty and Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?, with a particular focus on Artaud’s vision of rituality in his metaphysi¬
cal theater. The analysis also takes into account that Artaud did not formulate
a strongly defined concept of ritual. Working within some inherent freedom
— meanwhile bearing in mind the necessity of a satisfactorily adequate defini¬
tion — will give an interpretation based on Arnold van Gennep’s theory (using
the ritual concepts of Max Gluckman and Victor Turner), that illustrates the
ritualistic characteristics of the play. As a result, the study identifies a rela¬
tionship between Albee and Artaud in relation to the effect mechanism (or in
other words the mechanism of effectivity) while focusing on rituality, pointing
to the possibility of a parallel reading.
INTRODUCTION
It is important that we take the first step in this examination by first saying a
few words about what might seem to be an unusual parallel between Antonin
Artaud’s theatrical vision and Edward Albee’s play, as their relationship is
rarely discussed in academic analysis of the play. This is probably due to the
worldwide success of Albee’s work and the unique character of Artaud’s ideas,
creating a seemingly paradoxical case when considering the success of Broad¬
way and the unfavorable reception of the Theater of Cruelty. Therefore, this
paradox stems from success and failure, stretched between the enthusiasm of
the masses and a lack of acceptance, underlining and enforcing the idea that
the “prophecy” of Artaud is only intended for the chosen ones, creating a wall
of separation between itself and the masses, in spite of Artaud’s fundamental
objective: “the Theater of Cruelty proposes to resort to a mass spectacle.”’
Such analysis of Artaud’s texts might reveal existing parallels, however, the
understanding of which can be aided by the work of Robert Brustein. Although
1 Antonin Artaud: The Theater and Cruelty, in The Theater and Its Double, trans. Mary Caro¬
line Richards, New York, Grove Press, 1958, 85.
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