Theatre of Horrors: The Sordid Story of Paris' Grand Guignol + Intro (18)
Tracing the story of the centuries-old, taboo-busting theatre dedicated to the bizarre, the bloody and the shocking. With writer’s introduction from Madeline Despenser.
In 1897 Oscar Méténier invented the Grand-Guignol. Live depictions of death, bloody melodramas, screams of the victims and the audience: here is the story of this Parisian theater of horrors that revolutionized the depiction of death in art. In a back alley in the seedy Pigalle district of Paris, a former chapel became a theatrical institution forged in naturalism, controversy and grisly spectacle. Over the next 65 years, it would actively provoke revulsion, celebration and begrudging global esteem.
More than a half century after its final performance, the Grand Guignol remains one of the most wildly misunderstood and profoundly influential traditions in entertainment history. From horror films to tabloid journalism, avant-garde theater to the true-crime genre, France’s ‘Theatre of Death’ is still slicing, gouging and spurting its pervasive way through culture both high
and low.
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