Performing Grand-Guignol: Playing the Theatre of Horror

by Richard J Hand, Michael Wilson

Overview

From the authors of the successful Grand-Guignol and London's Grand Guignol - also published by UEP - this book includes translations of a further eleven plays, adding significantly to the repertoire of Grand-Guignol plays available in the English language. The emphasis in the translation and adaptation of these plays is once again to foreground the performability of the scripts within a modern context - making Performing Grand-Guignol an ideal acting guide. Hand and Wilson have acquired extremely rare acting copies of plays which have never been published and scripts that were published in the early years of the twentieth century but have not been published since - even in French. Includes plays written by, or adapted from, such notable writers as Octave Mirbeau, Gaston Leroux and St John Ervine as well as examples by Grand-Guignol stalwarts Ren E Berton and Andre de Lorde. Also included is the 1920s London translation of Blind Man's Buff written by Charles Hellem and Pol d'Estoc and banned by the Lord Chamberlain. A brief history of the Parisian theatre is also included, for the benefit of readers who have not read the previous books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780859899963
Publisher:	University of Exeter Press
Publication date:	03/31/2016
Series:	Exeter Performance Studies
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Richard J. Hand is Professor of Media Practice and Head of Media, Film and TV Studies at University of East Anglia. He is the co-editor of the Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Richard has written extensively on adaptation, horror studies, European theatre, radio drama, and popular culture. He has also worked as a writer, director and performer for theatre and radio. His practice-based research activities include experimental live re-creations of The Train of Terror! (2005), The Terrifying Tale of Sweeney Todd! (2008), Noel Coward's The Better Half (2008), and Kandinsky's The Yellow Sound (2011). Michael Wilson is Professor of Drama at Loughborough University. He was previously Professor of Drama and Dean of the School of Media and Performance at University College Falmouth and prior to that was Head of Research at the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Glamorgan and Co-Director (with Hamish Fyfe) of the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling. His main research interests lie in the field of popular and vernacular performance and he has published extensively on Storytelling, Grand-Guignol and Brecht and his collaborators. In particular, his work on storytelling has led him to work on the interface between storytelling and digital technology and the way in which the internet has enabled the telling and sharing of 'extraordinary' stories of the everyday experiences of people.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

Section I A Brief History of the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol 1

Section II The Grand-Guignol Laboratory 9

A Gallery of Production Photographs from the Grand-Guignol Laboratory

Section III Prefaces and Plays 49

First Programme 51

The Haunted House (La Maison bantée) Marc Bonis-Charancle 60

The Kama Sutra or Never Flay with Fire … (Kama Soutra, ou ll ne faut pas jouer avec le feu) Régis Gignoux 70

Blind Man's Buff Charles Hellem Pol d'Estoc 83

The Light in the TomblGott mit unsl (L'a Lumière dans le tombeau/Gott mit unsl) René Berton 98

Second Programme 123

Progress St. John Ervine 130

A Silk Dress (Line Kobe de Sole) Henriette Charasson 146

The Great Terror (La Grande épouvante) André de Lorde Henri Bauche 156

Third Programme 189

The Wax Museum (Figures de Cire) André de Lorde Georges Montignac 202

The Lovers (Les Amants) Octave Mirbeau 221

The Man Who Met the Devil (L'Homme qui a vu le diable) Gaston Leroux 232

The Man Who Killed Death (L'Homme qui a tué la mort) René Berton 256

Bibliography 277

Index 281

Editorial Reviews

From reviews of Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror (UEP, 2002) "Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson ... manage in a number of telling ways to make the subject their own. ... Hand and Wilson's main interest in Grand Guignol is ... that of present-day theatre practitioners seeking to understand how these pieces might be able to work for fresh audiences. ... they also prove themselves to be highly astute when it comes to examining these works in the light of contemporary (especially post-Freudian) critical theory. ... performance practice is continually interrogated by critical and historical insight." Gothic Studies, August 2003 "... the genre has left more of a mark on British and American culture than we may imagine." Gothic Studies, May 2004 From reviews of London's Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror (UEP, 2007) "...Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson, who have previously written on the French Grand Guignol for this excellent series from the University of Exeter Press, now turn to the English variant..." "...London's Grand Guignol is a fine introduction to a neglected corner of the twentieth-century arts world." Times Literary Supplement, 18 April 2008 "...London's Grand Guignol allows Hand and Wilson to make a persuasive case for Grand Guignol's place not only in modern theatre history, but also in the film history of thrillers and horror films. This book will be useful as a hands-on theatre history and practice text for programs where one might imagine offering students an opportunity to apply their creativity to the same challenges Jose Levy faced." Theatre Survey, Vol. 50/2, November 2009

From the Publisher

This is the third and, this reviewer assumes, final volume in this important series on the Grand Guignol, a playhouse in Paris that during its time (1897-1962) was renowned as a ‘theatre of horror.’ Hand and Wilson are responsible for all the volumes (including translation of texts). As they did with the previous two volumes, the authors make clear the importance of production in the creation of these unique plays—which often combined horror and comedy—and they devote considerable space to exercises for actors, issues for directors, and details on rehearsal processes. The volume centers on eleven classic examples of Grand Guignol plays—clustered together as they might have been when originally produced—presented in original translations, and each with an in-depth preface. The first volume in the series, Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror, includes useful background; volume 2, London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror, emphasizes the 1920s experiments in the UK. This final volume provides a brief history and a variety of supporting additions, for example, a selective bibliography, photographs, and a summary of the experiments in the UK. Including a few documentary notes, the book represents the work of some fourteen playwrights, all but a couple French. Recommended.

Choice

A important series on the Grand Guignol.  Recommended.

Choice - D. B. Wilmeth