Antonin Artaud (2001), The Theatre and its Double, trans. Victor Corti, (first published in 1964, as Antonin Artaud: Oeuvres Completes. Tome IV) London: Calder.

In 'Theatre and the Plague', Artaud describes the plague as a form of disorder (as a kind of virus perhaps): 

'The plague takes dormant images, latent disorder and suddenly carries them to the point of the most extreme gestures. Theatre also takes gestures and develops them to the limit. Just like the plague, it reforges the links between what does and what does not exist in material nature. [...] It restores all our dormant conflicts and their powers, giving these powers names we acknowledge as signs. Here a bitter clash of symbols takes place before us, hurled one against the other in an inconceivable riot.' (Artaud, 2001: 18) 

For Artaud, theatre like the plague unravels conflicts and releases potential. The plague disrupts human progress (order) and encourages irrationality (disorder), unleashing the potential for radical change. Here the more well-known connection between 'Theatre and Cruelty' is fully evoked:    
'Everything that acts is cruelty. Theatre must rebuild itself on a concept of this drastic action pushed to the limit.' (Artaud, 2001: 65) Thus a non-virtual but real language of theatre transgresses the ordinary limits of technique, engaging with the complex and dangerous world.