Antonin Artaud Describes "La Réalité Virtuelle"

In 1938 French poet, playwright, actor and director Antonin Artaud, working in Paris, published Le théâtre et son double. Artaud described theatre as  "la réalité virtuelle," a virtual reality "in which characters, objects, and images take on the phantasmagoric force of alchemy's visionary internal dramas."  Arnauld's description may be the first use of the phrase, virtual reality.