Word: Cruelty

Dictionary.com defines cruelty as "the quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance." Artaud argues in his chapter "No More Masterpieces" that the only way to insure that theatre keep its usefulness is by redesigning it to be "a theater of cruelty" (79). His use of cruelty refers to the second part of the definition, as theatre needs to cause tension, it needs to make people uncomfortable. "We are not free...the theater has been created to teach us that first of all;" this is what Artaud means by something cruel (79). He wants us to understand that the only way we can affect the public is by creating something that causes them to think, and creating tension is tne way to do that.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cruelty