The lecture that Artaud gave at the Vieux-Colombier Theatre on 13 January 1947, entitled ‘The true story of Artaud-Mômo – Face to face by Antonin Artaud’, would become an important reference point for a generation of post-war intellectuals and artists. This is the first translation into English of a work that many scholars believe is crucial in understanding Artaud’s later writings.

What makes these texts so riveting and powerful is that Artaud, unlike in his other writings, is summing up a lifetime’s experience of pain at the hands of society and doctors. It is the closest thing we have to Artaud’s autobiography. In his lecture at the Theatre Vieux-Colombier, Artaud forcefully ruptured all received and polite notions of performance or lecture, even the idea of the theater.

He pushed himself and his viewers past the realm of what could be comfortably absorbed. Writing to Saillet, after the performance, Artaud maintained what he always thought was true in this world: that “all the rare lucid tortured souls have always been assassinated.”

Translated and with an introduction by Peter Valente 

Afterword by Stephen Barber

Illustrated by Martin Bladh & Karolina Urbaniak

Publisher: Infinity Land Press

Published: July 2025

Format: Hardback

Pages: 324

Dimensions: 190 x 148mm