About us

Theatre of Cruelty produced its first performance in collaboration with Trøndelag Theatre in 1989, and was established as a separate group in 1992. Since 2002 we have had our own stage in Hausmannsgt 34 which was established with support from the Norwegian Arts Council.

The company has performed at festivals and stages in Japan, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, England, Sweden, India and France. The company has in some of these places, in addtion to in Ireland and New York, also held workshops.

Theatre of Cruelty make performances within the physical tradition and retrieves basic inspiration from Antonin Artaud’s vision of an anatomical theater.

We create theater with the body’s own musicality, its breath and poetry, as the beginning for all actions. Artaud wanted to awaken the inherent life force that exists in nature and that the Western man seems to have forgotten. Theatre thus becomes a tool for real life.

We do not seek to reproduce realistic reality so it can be recognized, but to tell of the core of life inherent in every genuine experience. Although based on a dramatic work or a literary text, the written word does not have a pivotal role and is often lost in the overall stage picture.

Artistic director and founder is Lars Øyno.