GRAND GUIGNOL
The Grand Guignol opened on 13th April 1897 and was situated at 20 bis rue Chaptal in
Montmarte, Paris. For 65 years (until the Theatre shut in November 1962) a variety of
troupes of actors titillated Parisian audiences with it's one act performances of murder,
mayhem and revenge. Every night on stage they performed stabbings, mutilations,
beheadings, gouging, tortures & dismemberments in graphic detail to a delighted
horrorified viewing audience who would often laugh, cry and faint all in the space of one
dark evening.
The Theatre du Grand Guignol (translated to mean Large Puppet Theatre) had once been a
convent but was destroyed in the French Revolution and only the chapel remained. This
wooden Gothic auditorium, consisting of a ground floor and balcony, could accommodate
almost 300 when full. The audiences saw the work of many famous playwrights or authors who
had there work adapted for the stage and these included Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling,
Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain and Gaston Leroux to name but a few.
In 1889, the Theatre's original owner, Oscar Metenier mysteriously disappeared but the
performance continued to thrive under various owners and managers. The change in owner's
also brought in a different style of performance with the group progressing from Morality Plays
to a much more gruesome fare. The Theatre's ideas were based on naturalism and involved
turning everyday banal objects into instruments of horror and featured reoccurring themes
such as Infanticide, Insanity, Vengeance, Mysterious Death and the Suffering of the
Innoncent. As well as featuring these common themes in the now notorious Horror Plays they
were all performed by the company is Comedies and Sex Farces.
Many of the famous plays performed at the Grand Guignol were written by Andre de Lorde
who wrote at least 100 plays for the venue between the years 1901 and 1926. Two of these
plays were 'The System of Doctor Goudron and Professor Plume' plus 'A Crime in a
Madhouse'. The latter play was written in 1925 alongside Alfred Binet is a two-act tale of
horror centering on a lunatic asylum and the insanity felt by it's inmates who feel
threatened by a new addition. As the play progresses as does the terror...
The Grand Guignol has featured in many films over the years ranging from D W Griffith's
'On The Telephone' in 1909 to Neil Jordan's 1994 blockbuster 'Interview With The Vampire:
The Vampire Chronicles'. It is only now this naturalistic style of Theatre has resurfaced
in dramatic style as shown in the essential plot and action
featured in 'Fall & Rise'.
Order Mel
Gordon's 'The Grand Guignol: Theatre of Fear & Terror' today!
