Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) was a French playwright, poet, and theorist known for his radical ideas about theater. In his essay On the Balinese Theater, he explores his experience watching Balinese dance performances at the Paris Colonial Exhibition in 1931. Artaud was deeply influenced by the precise gestures, symbolic movements, and rhythmic elements of Balinese theater, which he saw as a contrast to the text-heavy, naturalistic Western theater.

He admired how Balinese performances used physicality, masks, and music to convey deep meaning, creating an intense, almost ritualistic experience. This inspired his concept of the Theater of Cruelty, where he argued that theater should shock the audience into deeper awareness by engaging all the senses, rather than relying on traditional dialogue and storytelling.

Although his interpretation of Balinese theater was somewhat romanticized and lacked full understanding of its cultural roots, his ideas influenced avant-garde theater and performance art, pushing theater toward a more immersive, visceral form of expression.