Surrealism-Plays is a site devoted to information about
Surrealism and Surrealist Writing,
as well as Avant-Garde Theatre. We
offer biographies on most of the writers associated with
Surrealism, as well as Avant-Garde
Playwrights. Our site also includes extensive Book
Lists, featuring currently available publications, as well as
hard to find gems, exploring the worlds of Surrealist
Writing and Non-traditional Drama. Furthermore, we have provided pages devoted to
Surrealist Poetry; Surrealist
Artists; Images and Photographs; Surrealist
Paintings; Surrealist Films;
Surrealist Architecture & Design;
Documents of the Surrealist Movement in
Paris; News of Surrealist Activities, Exhibits and
Publications; and Links relating
to Surrealism and Avant-Garde Theatre.
Surrealism was a literary, artistic and revolutionary movement, founded in Paris during the 1920s. Its primary goal was to overcome societal traditions that oppressed the freedom of the individual, and to explore, in a completely uninhibited manor, the far reaches of one's imagination, dreams and desires.
Two words were key to Surrealism:
Liberation and Exploration. Andre Breton, who wrote the
first Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924, spoke about a "revolution of
the self" - an attempt to touch the very core of one's self,
in its purest form, unaffected by the external world and its
influences.
Inspired by Sigmund Freud and
his studies of the subconscious, Surrealists experimented with
automatic writing and games of chance, pushing beyond traditional
logic, and delving deep into the world of the irrational, the mysterious,
and the "marvelous of everyday life".
Surrealism manifested itself through literature,
poetry, art, photography, cinema, philosophy and politics. Among the best
known Surrealist writers are Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Paul Eluard,
Robert Desnos, Benjamin Peret, Antonin Artaud and Rene Crevel. Surrealist
artists include Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Joan Miro, Yves Tanguy and
Andre Masson. Luis Bunuel is perhaps the most acclaimed Surrealist
filmmaker, while Man Ray gained fame for his photography.
Click here to read A Chronology of Surrealism, spanning the
years 1922 through 1939, provided by the Centre Pompidou in
Paris.
If you would like to read Andre Breton's First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) in its entirty, as well as other
Surrealist texts, please visit our Documents page.
Other links
relating to Surrealism and Avant-Garde
Theatre , including sites devoted to
Andre Breton, Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali, Robert Desnos, Bertolt Brecht
and others, can be found on our Surrealist & Avant-Garde Theatre Links
page.
Click here to visit our
page devoted to Surrealist Films.
For further information regarding
Avant-Garde Theatre, explore our Avant-Garde Playwrights page, which includes biographical notes on Georg Buchner, Alfred
Jarry, Oskar Panizza, Raymond Roussel, Oskar Kokoschka, Georg Kaiser, Ernst
Toller, Yvan Goll, Bertolt Brecht, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Guillaume
Apollinaire, Antonin Artaud, Roger Vitrac, Robert Desnos, Georges Neveux,
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Federico Garcia Lorca, Michel de Ghelderode,
Luigi Pirandello, John Paul-Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco,
Tadeusz Kantor, Heiner Muller and Richard Foreman. As well as
other individuals associated with avant-garde theatre:
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold, Erwin Piscator
and Kazuo
Ohno.
RECOMMENDED
READING
Click above image to learn more about Sanctus
Fumigaci and its author, as well as ordering
information.
"Bash is one of the few contemporary playwrights who
captures the spirit of surrealism. In fact, surrealist figures from the
past, such as Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali and Paul Eluard, appear as
characters in a couple of his plays. Dream-like, funny, and sometimes
disturbing, SANCTUS FUMIGACI (which, in English, loosely translates to
"Holy Smoke") is recommended for fans of avant garde literature and
experimental theater."