Comments on: Grand-Guignol

Grand-Guignol

joelf — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 05:14:08 -0800

The Theatre du Grand-Guignol was a French theatre that was famous for one thing: bloody awful plays. The theatre produced gory plays that gauged its success by the amount of people that fainted in the audience. unfortunately due to the excessive amount of violence in their plays, they became a parody of themselves. People lost interest and the form of gore theatre was lost. until fairly recently.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 05:35:13 -0800

Another form of "gore theatre". And yet another.

By: theinsectsarewaiting

theinsectsarewaiting — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 05:54:53 -0800

Back when I was in highschool, my drama teacher asked our class to prepare a scene from any style/school of theatre we wanted. I remember flipping through a theatre history book and coming across Grand-Guignol and thinking, "Yes, this will do just fine." My group staged a quadruple amputation. Didn't get a great mark, but, man, the hash-smoking metal dudes in my class thought I was the shit for about a week.

By: joelf

joelf — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 05:58:24 -0800

Strangely, I found this Italian dog kennel with the name grand Guignol. Thought it was pretty funny.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 06:05:24 -0800

You'll never get MY dog, you bastards!

By: norm

norm — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 06:43:25 -0800

I found this writeup of a Grand-Guignol tribute a few years ago (it's got some contemporary poster art). You may also recognize the Grand-Guignol as the inspiration for the Theatre des Vampyres in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. See also Uncle Cecil.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 06:50:08 -0800

Lupo the Butcher (NSFW) was a postmodern wink to the old stagecraft.

By: fungible

fungible — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:39:49 -0800

It's just a flesh wound! Need another example? They had this at the UCB theater over Halloween.

By: stray

stray — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 09:17:12 -0800

My group staged a quadruple amputation. How do you make this stuff look real? Cool post.

By: theinsectsarewaiting

theinsectsarewaiting — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:36:42 -0800

Stray, We were low-tech. Stuffed gloves and boots. Wooden rulers to create a satisfying bone crunch. Plastic bags filled with red paint, squeezed by the patient, to create awesome arterial bleeding (apparently I'm channeling my 15 year old self). I'm sure they're still rinsing the carpet.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:22:23 -0800

Japan had its own tradition of gore in its kizewamono Kabuki production. Searching for a decent link... In the meantime, this is good!

By: zombiejesus

zombiejesus — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:28:24 -0800

the Hypnodrome is... Fabulous. but seriously, the Zombie DNA show in SF this past April was full of gore and brains and hot, dead chicks, replete with Scienticians in head cages and a blood-and-guts-spewing Zombie-Shredder.

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:40:00 -0800

The tradition of Grand Guignol also inspired Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece "Sweeney Todd".