Performing Grand-Guignol ─ Playing the Theatre of Horror

The Theatre du Grand-Guignol in Paris, which opened in 1897 and closed officially in 1962, specialized in often graphic horror theater. Over the past fifteen years, authors Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson have worked to explore this extraordinary but largely forgotten theater, running theater workshops with students that at times have led to new productions in the style of the Grand-Guignol. The present volume provides rich insights into the authors’ work performing Grand-Guignol theater with their students, and includes a brief history of the Grand-Guignol as well as translations of sixteen plays from such notable writers as Octave Mirbeau, Gaston Leroux, and St John Ervine in addition to Grand-Guignol stalwarts Rene Berton and Andre de Lorde.Performing Grand-Guignol is ideal as an acting guide as well as for anyone with an interest in theater studies or the history of theater.

Richard J. Hand is professor of theater and media drama at the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Glamorgan.Michael Wilson is professor of drama at Loughborough University Hand and Wilson have written two other books on Grand-Guignol theater,Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror and London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror, both from University of Exeter Press.