But the result of these limited exposures—in terms ofthier varied responses and also the amount of writing on the oriental theatre is considerable. Meyerhold refers to oriental theatre—specially Japanese No and Kabuki—quite often in his articles. Grotowski talks about it in many of his interviews and accepts in his manifesto 'Towards a poor theatre" that he has taken elements from Kathakali as well as some other Chinese and Indian theatre forms for his method of actor training. Brechfs article "Alientation in Chinese Acting" draws parallels to the Chinese actopand the epic acting. Artaud's references to oriental theatre are innumerable in his notes and letters, apart from the articles—"On Balinese Dances"* and "Oriental Theatre & Occidental Theatre". The exact aspect of the oriental theatre which attracted the attention of these experimentalists differs from person to person. For Meyerhold, it was mainly the non-realistic nature of the forms. Between 1902 and 1907, writing against the realistic school, he refers often to the oriental theatre and specifically admires No drama for its positive decorative qualities.^ He was also exposed to "the lessons to be learnt from the oriental theatre in the use ofrhythimcal movement". ForCraig and especially forArtaud, the attraction of the oriental theatre was for'deepef reasons, for the reasons of its mystic and metaphysical qualities. In 1900, when Craig witnessed the visiting Japanese No performance, the general London audience did not find it interesting. But Craig appreciated it. He admired it for "the apparant absence of violent passion", for its "highly conventional symbolism, in which every gesture held clear significance, its distance from every day life, or its "unnaturalness", and its simplicity and spiritual suggestion."4 This association of spirituality with oriental theatre has been carried to the extreme by Artaud. In fact, his response to the oriental theatre was to a great extent subjective, visionary and poetic, as was his concept of theatre. For example one of his impressions of Balinses dancers is : They are like large insects full of lines and segments made to connect them to God knows what perspective of Nature, and they no longer seem to be anything but a remote geometry of that perspective.^ The attitude of Craig and Artaud represents one kind of response towards the oriental theatre. They singled out the qualities which were symbolic and found something metaphysical and mystical in it. Both of them had an extremely limited exposure and especially Artaud wrote pages and pages on this subject based on his experience of witnessing only two dance performance which were imported to Europe. Therefore, most of Artaud's reactions and associations the angular stiffness and the trance of the Balinses dancers with the surge of cosmic powers, gestures with hermeticism. every iota of sound with metaphysics—are a result of his poetic vision of his own theatre concept. The whole process of action—reaction, in the case of Artaud, becomes a mental phenomenon. In his "Letter to Dalai Lama" he exclaims : We are your faithfull servants, oh. great Lama. give us. send us your Journal of Arts and Ideas 4^