The Cenci

by Antonin Artaud/Translation by Richard Sieburth

Adapted and Directed by John Jahnke

Hotel Savant is indebted to various institutions during the creation process for each individual work. Most are created in part through residencies and workshops, sponsored or hosted by spaces that enable the impending production to take place.

This rarely staged Theatre of Cruelty work was created specifically for Hotel Savant by Richard Sieburth of the French Department/NYU. With the approval of the Artaud estate, The Cenci was developed in residence at The Watermill Center, and then presented at The Ohio Theater in 2008. Originally staged in 1935 in Paris, it provoked a caustic reaction and despite its infamous artistic failures, redefined how theater, through visceral vision, might modernize the technique of theatrical presentation.