BACILLI AND BRIMSTONES

A PLAY IN TWO SIMULTANEOUS SCENES

Ari Adipurwawidjana

If our life lacks brimstone, i.e., a constant magic, it is

because we choose to observe our acts and lose ourselves
in considerations of their imagined form instead of being
impelled by their force.
Antonin Artaud
Cast of Characters
(The audience is welcome to identify with or assume the
role of any persona available most suitable for currently
perceived or pursued identity)

Scene 1
Student 1—a reluctant articulate speaker
who, though apparently has excellent
control of the orthographic
representations of linguistic sounds, would
no sooner drench paper and ink with the
salivary excesses of vowel and consonants,
diphthongs and glides, rhythm and
intonations, pauses and silence.
Student 2—an islander who should be in scene
2, and therefore, does not respond too
well to Roman, Arabic, Devanagari,
Pallavan, or Chinese characters (as well as
the syncretic variations thereof), which
inflict and upset his metabolic functions as
pathological agents, the text presently in
your hands included.
Student 3—who is silent most of the time,
except for occasional vowels, diphthongs,
semi-vowels, and nasals, but constantly
registering vocal, orthographic and other
forms of stimulants into a firewalled
complex system of signifieds inaccessible
to other minds.
Student 4—an outstandingly outspoken
individual possessing the ability to
articulate ideas in syntaxes so
sophisticated that the average person may
take them to be mere obscure
intellectualism.
Student 5—an outstandingly outspoken
individual whose expressed thoughts
mostly take the form of intellectually
obscure non-predicative phrases and
exclamations.
Student 6—a student of the written word
constantly occupied with the task of
handwriting a complete critical paper
ready for publication upon transcription
onto the digital format.
Student 7—a student of the written word
constantly occupied with the task of
scribbling (and on fortunate occasions
actually writing) notes.
Student 8—a pre- (if not anti-) linguistic
character whose main mode of interaction
with the environment deals with subtle
muscular movements.
Student 9—a poet who synthesizes æsthetic
experience out of the ordinary events
occurring in enclosed spaces.
Student 10—a zealous adherent of pragmatic
criticism who finds recent theoretical
discourse on text and language
outrageously useless in the humanist effort
to enlighten humanity through literary
studies and artistic endeavors.
Student 11—a zealous adherent of
structuralism who finds excitement in
realizing that efforts in identifying
structures in human experience leads to
disintegration of the structuralist
perspective and the running amok of
reality in the constant re-creation of
itself.
Professor—an individual who finds amusement
getting people (and referring to texts and
films which try) to explain the
inexplicability of the absurd.
Fly on the Wall, going about its business as a
fly on a wall.

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 Scene 2

Albert Camus.—novelist, revolutionary and Martin Esslin.—the scrivener.

anti-revolutionary, having TB.
Sigmud Freud.—absent due to disqualification
Antonin Artaud.—master dramatist 1, calling
Konstantin Stanislavski.—absent due to
for TB revolution in the theater.
constipation
Augusto Boal.—dramatic pedagogue, yearning
Sophocles—absent due to fossilization
to be a revolutionary, imagining he has TB.
42 nameless islanders (nameless as this play
Bertold Brecht.—master dramatist 2, calling
find it inconvenient to name)
for revolution in the theater, with no
interest in TB. 9 nameless Exxon, Socfin, Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung, and Hivos executives and
Jean Genet.—perverted pupil of master
representatives on vacation (nameless as
thespian 1, with no need for TB bacilli (or
this play find it inappropriate to name)
other pathological microorganism) to be
inflicted with illness. Flies—flying from one corpse and carrion to
another in the absence of walls.

SCENE1
The play is set in an English department faculty lounge made into a graduate seminar
classroom. Six round tables, with three to four chairs around each, situate themselves in the
room leaving an approximately a one-yard radius of space around each table. Therefore, the
stage can be envisioned as space with six segments or sextants, with each table occupying one
sextant. Actors sit around in their usual respective manners or lack thereof. The room is
terribly well lit by neon lights (no chance for dimmers or colors). Humming, droning sounds
linger in the background. Ennui is obviously in the air (why else would anyone want to talk
about existentialism until 9 p.m.?). Each actor takes random turns taking deep breaths and
letting out sighs. S1 and S2 look at each other and sigh in unison. P takes a seat at the table
on the northeast sextant. S1 and S2, initially seated in the southeast move to the northwest
near the chalkboard (on the north wall).

Time
Early dinner, or late tea, or punctual end-of-the-day shower, or maghrib-prayer, or verandah-
conversation with feet still blotched with mud, all depending on geographic, cultural, class,
or religious preferences.

P smiles, but with eyebrows slightly raised Well?

S1 Right.
S2 starts to say something but TB bacilli and bird-flu viruses rush out from the lungs through
his trachea and jump out in a terrible phlegmatic cough. He wipes his mouth with the back
of his hand and wipes it on the table. Invisibly the microbes travel to the edges of the
table, piggyback-riding on bacteria, rickettsias, dust, and what-not. They dive off the
tables and delicately float and meet their fellow-microbes, already airborne since the
cough. Excuse me. No apologies from the germs, though. They are off on duty.
S1 The theater of cruelty is a concept that took form in Artaud’s mind caused by the
realization that we cannot go on prostituting the idea of the theater, whose [3-second
pause followed by rising tone] only value lies in its excruciating, magical connection with
reality and danger.
S7 Hmm…and starts to scribble notes.
S3 Yeah…and makes a mental note, invisible to other characters and the audience but known
by the author who lets the reader of this text in on the secret, a sly act common to those
addicted to the text.

2
S8 does nothing of theatrical significance, but does lower eyelids a bit which could serve a
sememe for those wanting one to take home in case of emergencies.
S1 The entrance to the theater of cruelty as not unlike a cough, for Artaud sees the theater
functioning in the manner of the plague. Both, according to him, exist as dormant spiritual
humors within a society that are activated. Both produce frenzy and, eventually, change,
[gestures quotation marks with his fingers which causes the neon light to cast on the table
an image of the devil with shy horns, or an Easter bunny with horny ears] by allowing for an
exteriorization of a depth of latent cruelty by means of which all the perverse possibilities
of the mind, whether of an individual or a people, are localized [again signals quotes]. In
doing so, they [yet another occasion for the finger curling] cause the mask to fall, reveal
the lie, the slackness, baseness and hypocrisy of our world . . . they shake off the
asphyxiating inertia of matter which invades even the clearest testimony of the senses; and
in revealing to collectivities of men their dark power, their hidden force, they invite them
to take, in the face of destiny, a superior and heroic attitude they would never have
assumed without them [and another].
S4 raises his hand requesting attention So…
S1 Yes?
S4 So, I imagine there would emerge an important shift within its thematics [three-second
pause] the difference between speaking the position of the subject who suffers [one-second
pause] and enacting suffering [rising tone] as the manifestation of force [two-second pause]
is also the difference between [bull horns] unpower [more bull horns] and potency in the
face of a return of chaos.
S1 Right. In essence, Artaud wants to bring theater back to the level of primitive ritual from
which it was born. He wants to present the interplay of forces such as Creation, Becoming,
Chaos, and Destruction in such a way that the experience of his audience is not detached
and spectatorial, but ritualistic and transcendent [two-second pause] metaphysical [one-
second pause] is his preferred term. He wants to reflect [gestures quotation marks
resembling still diabolical horns] another archetypal and dangerous reality, a reality of
which the Principles, like dolphins, once they have showed their heads, hurry to dive back
into the obscurity of the deep [then a pair resembling rabbit ears].
S2 Like polio, paralyzing thousands of children then hides in some cryptic genetic code for
three decades then out of nowhere reappears in the septic year of two thousand and five.
Then coughs vehemently. It comes whether you like it or night, like a second coming.
S4 To admit the plague is to become the site of dissolution that is an incarnation, and to make
of this becoming a performance, a public ceremony and spectacular revelation by which all
spectators will be implicated in the alchemical transformation they are made to witness.
S9 An alchemical theater? That’s awesome.
S1 Artaud talks about that when he talks about the dolphin thing [cough].
S5 mumbling psychologically intense theater then pauses leaving the grammatical function of
the phrase to the discretion of whomever sensitive enough to decipher mumbles
S1 Well, actually, Artaud rejects what he refers to as [more devil horns] psychological theater
[and some bunny ears]—that is, detached and septic theatrical performances that human
emotions and preoccupations within the safe and goldfish-bowl-like confines of the
traditional stage to be idly mulled over by paying customers. He is referring to the dominant
trend in Western theater from Shakespeare onward.
S11 It seems he would have a quarrel with [three-second pause] conventional theater which
would be concerned with the definition of the individual character, the delineation of
personal thoughts, the elucidation of emotional states, the discussion of psychological and
social issues.
S1 Right, Western theater from Shakespeare onwards. Artaud also rejects the reliance of
Western theater upon texts that are regarded as definitive and as sacred. This is because he
wants language in a theatrical performance to function outside of the level of conventional
denotation; he wants to use sounds produced by the human voice such as cries and
onomatopoeia to create [one-second pause] a dissociative and vibratory effect on our
sensibilities, [two-second pause] to arrive at more raw and elemental kind of meaning and

3
 experience.

S2 Lets out a sigh, expressing no meaning but expelling a couple of thousands of bird-flu
viruses.
S6 disappointed at a handwritten paragraph crumples the sheet, and proceeds onto a second
sheet with head piously facing the table.
S8 Yawns and takes in a fair number of the airborne microbes.
P slightly raises left eyebrow and left corner of the mouth creating a cynical half-smile
knowing that cynicism can easily counter-attack the imitative synthesis of genetic codes on
which the survival of viruses depends, as it usually does to any statement produced out of
a logocentric discourse.
S10 And how does all that have anything to do with the idea of the theater of cruelty?
S1 Right. Well, He uses the term cruel [devilish rabbit ears] to describe his theater not in the
sense of any kind of vulgar sadism, but to denote a kind of rigor, implacable intention and
decision, and irreversible and absolute determinism, an unrelentingness which operates
through a kind of assault of the audience’s sensibilities designed to shake them out of their
socially conditioned torpor.
S10 Sounds like a play without a script.
S1 Actually, Artaud has very detailed program the outlines how to implement his Theater of
Cruelty. The trappings of this theater would include costumes [two-second pause] no
modern dress and preferably ancient outfits that had been developed for use in rituals
[two-second pause] masks [two-second pause] both enormous and wearable [two-second
pause]. Artaud wishes to have a meticulous catalog of [gestures quotation marks] the ten
thousand and one facial expressions captured in the form of masks [gestures quotation
marks] [two-second pause] musical instruments [two-second pause] particularly brand new
or forgotten instruments capable of producing sounds to which we are not accustomed
[three-second pause]. Artaud is particularly interested in instruments made from new metal
alloys that are capable of producing [gestures quotation marks] intolerable or ear-
shattering sounds or noises [three-second pause] um, lighting that goes far beyond that
currently in use (that is, lighting capable of producing [three-second pause] a richly
nuanced palate of emotional response due to variations in its color, density, opacity, and
um [three-second pause] props such as giant puppets and hieroglyphs [three-second pause]
these are to exist in lieu of a stage set [three-second pause].
S6 ferociously working out a paragraph three-fourths of the way down the fifth page of the
handwritten document composed of a mix of stenographic notations and what resembles
Matisse’s charcoal strokes with some occasional lifting of the head to suck in academic
Delphic fumes imagined to seethe out of the air-vents
FW starts to see through its multifaceted eye-lenses the multitude of bacilli and starts to feel
uncomfortable, not for fear of sickness, but of estrangement and insignificance.

[THIS PART OF THE MANUSCRIPT IS TEMPORARILY OMITTED PENDING ITS ACTUAL COMPOSITION]

P sits comfortably, swinging left leg over left knee anxiously waiting for the inevitable
FW slaloms excitedly among bacilli which has always been kept enclosed, just flying in and
out with the inhales and exhales of the islander, in and out of other islanders, in and out
of lungs in four-fifths of the earth’s surface, being part of life, causing death, lingering in
and out of food, on and off walls, under fingernails, in the finely woven strands of clothes
and lint, in and out and around the fabric of life. But now they saw the prospect of being
on stage, performing, being the center and framework of a spectacle, as was of course the
fly no longer on the wall. They just cannot resist the thrill of coming fireworks.

SCENE 2

The play is set in a hall without walls two days after once-every-ninety-year tsunami one mile
from the western shore of a nameless island in the Indian (or is it the Pacific?) ocean. The hall

4
is actually a meeting place of the local people, but due to the recent surge of seawater
brought about by the tsunami, not many local inhabitants have the ability to meet or to do
any other normal activity as death hinders them. Their main purpose of their presence is now
to give off the awful stench of decay—acidic with a hint of bitter aftertaste. A gigantic
prismal chunk of rock broken off coastal cliffs, washed in by the waves, lies across the hall
adding the salty smell of seawater and the reek of seaweeds. While the shock of the
earthquake tremors and the tsunami has yet to evaporate from the consciousness of all
present in the scene, the stench reminds them of another abomination of nature with which
they have no choice but to deal: a plague. The characters take their positions in random
places. The ones with names perch themselves on top of the rock finding it to resemble a
stage.

Time
6:00 am local time

Albert curiously peers at Augusto, who is tinkering with a transistor radio looking for some
news, perhaps about them Is the radio working?
Augusto Yes. But there is a lot of static.
Albert Do you suppose geological activities have any affect on radio waves?
Antonin Everything has something to do with everything. Just because you don’t know how to
explain it, it does mean that it is not connected in some way.
Albert That is what I suspected. These inexplicable connections among things and situations
should be getting into our skin soon.
Augusto Most probably in the form of microbes, bacteria, viruses. But I already have them, so
it won’t make much a difference. I tested positive on the TB skin test.
Albert A pestilent apostle. So you, complying with Anton’s guidelines, set up the stage to
unleash the plague, literally.
Antonin So are you with your novels…spreading anxiety and discomfort to the minds…but you
may also have TB, yes?
Albert Well, I thought the Algerian climate does not accommodate the TB bacillus too well.
Antonin pointing at the increasingly blinding, increasingly red sun Algeria’s climate depends
on a sun much the same as that one, doesn’t it?
Albert Well, I suppose. If not TB, I’m sure some other pathological microorganism is hiding
within its calcium-cyst cocoon waiting to awake from its hibernation
Augusto But those of us who silently carry the plague in our blood and skin don’t even need to
think of words.
Antonin Yes. Just be there and you upset the illusion of equilibrium. Shake and sift. Then you
have equilibrium.
Augusto Have the spectators take the stage, and rock the place, I say.
Bertolt Looks out to the west away from the sun Bodies flat on the sand, caught in uprooted
trees, pressed between slabs of concrete for miles [takes a deep breath] what a spectacle!
Jean Absolutely beautiful! Exciting! Rubs his palms together then looks at the nameless nine
huddled together in mourning of themselves. They seem to need some education on the
appreciation of the spectacular.
Antonin At the very moment when the dregs of the population, apparently immunized by their
frenzied greed, enter the open houses and pillage riches they know will serve no purpose or
profit, the theater is born.
Bertolt Hear, hear. No theater for the scum who want to have the cockles of their hearts
warmed.

[THIS PART OF THE MANUSCRIPT IS TEMPORARILY OMITTED PENDING ITS ACTUAL COMPOSITION]

Flies slalom excitedly among the increasing number of falling drops of magma spurt out of the
volcano. Molten metal and mineral have always flowed slowly under the earth’s crust,

5
 grumbling in boredom, seeking a crack, an orifice out of which they may enter and rise
onto the stage. They just cannot resist the thrill of becoming the fireworks.

Bibliography and Online References for Further Interest

http://www.antoninartaud.org/
http://members.aol.com/mindwebart2/page101.htm
http://members.aol.com/mindwebart2/page169.htm
Artaud, Antonin. The Theater and Its Double. New York: Grove Press, 1958.
Baker, Geoffrey. “Nietzsche, Artaud, and Tragic Politics.” Comparative Literature 55 (2003): 1-
23.
Brockett, Oscar G. Perspectives on Contemporary Theatre. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1971.
Brustein, Robert. Approach to Modern Drama. Boston: Little, Brown, 1962.
Costich, Julia F. Antonin Artaud. Boston: Twayne, 1978.
Goodall, Jane. Artaud and Gnostic Drama. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.
Hayman, Ronald. Artaud and After. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1977.
Holdsworth, Mary. “Artaud: Cruelty and Reality.” Durham University Journal 58 (1965): 40-45
Knapp, Bettina Liebowitz. Antonin Artaud: A Man of Vision. New York: Avon, 1971.
Martin Esslin. Antonin Artaud. London: Penguin, 1977.
Spreen, Constance. “Resisting the Plague: The French Revolutionary Right and Artaud’s Theater
of Cruelty. Modern Language Quarterly 64 (2003): 71-96.