Grand Guignol is a style of theatre and film that relies on shock value and graphic violence. It originated from a Parisian theatre of the same name and featured controversial subjects such as criminals and prostitutes. The horror shows became famous under Max Maurey, and Andre de Lorde’s plays incorporated psychology and mental illnesses. The style influenced horror films and has seen a resurgence on stage.
Grand Guignol is a style of theatre, and by extension, film, that is gory, macabre, and heavily reliant on shock value. It typically makes use of special effects to produce realistic and exaggerated violence. The term Grand Guignol comes from a Parisian theater of the same name renowned for its gruesome shows.
Le Théâtre du Grand Guignol, open from 1897 to 1962, takes its name from a traditional French puppet, Guignol, which is similar to the English Punch. Playwright Oscar Metenier opened the 300-seat theater, the smallest in Paris, in a former chapel. Since its inception, it has specialized in controversial subjects, portraying criminals and prostitutes on stage and often attracting criticism from censors.
Max Maurey, who took over the Grand Guignol in 1898, ushered in the era of horror shows that would make the theater famous. The Grand Guignol still offered a variety of subjects, albeit all on the darker side, including crimes and sexual farces, and featured a few short plays each night. Violent ones, however, supplemented by butcher’s by-products, soon became a staple, and it was common to see audience members pass out. Maury hired a home doctor to attend to such onlookers.
Andre de Lorde wrote many of the plays that helped cement the Grand Guignol’s fame. He incorporated the relatively new field of psychology into his own plays, depicting a variety of mental illnesses and criminal behaviors. Almost every imaginable fear was exploited at the Grand Guignol, from executions and serial killers to epidemics and drug addiction, although the horror scenes were almost always interspersed with comedy ones.
The combination of increasingly violent horror films and the real-life atrocities of World War II led to the demise of Grand Guignol, but the style developed in that theater has since spiced up the horror genre. Exploitation films of the 1970s, such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre owe much to the Grand Guignol style. Grand Guignol has also seen a certain resurgence on stage. Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, due for filming in 2007, brings Grand Guignol effects back to the story of a murderous barber. The San Francisco-based Thrillseekers Theater Company has been translating and performing Grand Guignol plays since 1991.
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