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Exploring Theatre Through the Lens of Artaud, Brecht, and Absurdism

CHECK OUT PLAYS, BLOGS AND THEATRE IMAGINATION 

Release the power of feeling and intellect

Welcome to Shadow House PITS write. Our blogs and selection of scripts will serve as your tools for an adventurous theatrical experience. Enjoy browsing our range of artistic products. Feel free to contact us with questions or comments.

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Play Scripts

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Acting Artaud
02:50

Acting Artaud

Antonin Artaud's plays The Spurt Of Blood and To Have Done With The Judgement of God were incorporated in the theatre production, Acting Artaud. It was presented at The Street Theatre in Canberra and at The Seymour Centre in Sydney in 2004. This short video features some of the imagery from that production. The performance began with a short piece from Shadow House PITS titled Exorcism From The Cell developed in the image of Artaud as a response to the illegal war perpetrated in Iraq and supported by Australia. The revelations of Abu Graib reinforced Artaud's vision of hell as depicted in To Have Done With The Judgement Of God. In many ways our project did not achieve its aims and certainly Artaud's vision of a theatre that transcended the stereotype was only partially achieved. The year long project explored a means for utilizing Artaud's theories on a "theatre of cruelty". Photos at the end of the video are by 'pling. But Artaud's legacy is more than some fantasy for students to simply do fanciful and experimental indulgence. Acting Artaud was at the beginning of the burgeoning of academic re-interest in Artaud. And in that sense, the project was successful. It was worth the "walk-outs" in Sydney and all the angst that the work created. We would not do this work in the same way today. Acting Artaud was in many ways a naive expression of Artaud's ideal ... It actually suggested the possibility ... But in not accepting the impossibility of Artaud's ideal, the work missed the key ingredients of theatre of cruelty. It was then only a beginning ...
Our Lady Shorter video promo
02:16
GEESE extended preview and promo.mp4
12:00
Cathedral Song brief
02:39

THE STORY OF
SHADOW HOUSE PITS write and CHALLENGING THEATRE SCRIPTS

Shadow House PITS Write and our challenging theatre scripts is the result of Shadow House PITS and its philosophy of theatre developed over decades of practice. Some scripts have become renowned throughout the world with productions taking place outside of Australia in Europe, Northern Ireland, Lebanon, the UK and the US. and workshop readings occurring wider afield. 

Our passion for a theatre of challenge and change has driven us from the beginning, and continues to drive us into the future. Shadow House PITS Write knows that every one of its scripts is the product of no single author, but are the result of the collaboration between writer, director, actor, designer, dramaturg and audience members.

The work is a kind of organic response to urgent social and cultural conditions. They do not result from a formalist perspective or approach. All scripts have surrealist elements embedded within the texts and offer the opportunity for highly subjective working via the imaginations of collaborators. They utilise big themes and issues that haunt civil society and allow for a radical theatre to emerge through the cracks in the cultural psyche to reveal contradictory realities for new awareness. 

The work is a kind of organic response to urgent social and cultural conditions. They do not result from a formalist perspective or approach. All scripts have surrealist elements embedded within the texts and offer the opportunity for highly subjective working via the imaginations of collaborators. They utilise big themes and issues that haunt civil society and allow for a radical theatre to emerge through the cracks in the cultural psyche to reveal contradictory realities for new awareness. 

These are not precious. Rather they hold the seeds for exploration into the human, social, cultural environment through which they might find existence. We invite you to try them. There are videos and some samples to help you choose.

Joe WoodwardWriter / Director(Click HERE to read up on who isSHADOW HOUSE PITS)

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