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 René Berton and André 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:	9780859891141
Publisher:	University of Exeter Press
Publication date:	07/31/2019
Series:	Exeter Performance Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	7 MB

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.

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).

Together with Mike Wilson he has delivered workshops on Grand Guignol, and presented Grand Guignol performances at universities, international conferences and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Richard and Michael are the authors of Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror (2002), London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror (2007) and Performing Grand-Guignol - Playing the Theatre of Horror (2016), all published by UEP.

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.

Together with Richard Hand he has delivered workshops on Grand Guignol, and presented Grand Guignol performances at universities, international conferences and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Richard and Michael are the authors of Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror (2002), London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror (2007) and Performing Grand-Guignol - Playing the Theatre of Horror (2016), all published by UEP.

Table of Contents

Preface

A note on the scripts

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

Section II: The Grand-Guignol Laboratory

Section III: Prefaces and Plays

First Programme

            The Haunted House (La Maison hantée) by Marc Bonis-Charancle

            The Kama Sutra or Never Play with Fire… (Kama Soutra, ou Il ne faut pas joer avec le feu) by Régis Gignoux

            Blind Man’s Buff by Charles Hellem and Pol d’Estoc

            The Light in the Tomb (Gott mit uns! (La Lumière dans la tombeau))by René Berton

Second Programme

            Progress by St. John Ervine

            A Silk Dress (Une Robe de Soie) by Henriette Charasson

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

Third Programme

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

            The Lovers (Les Amants) by Octave Mirbeau

            The Man Who Met the Devil (L’homme qui a vu le diable) by Gaston Leroux

            The Man Who Killed Death (L’homme qui a tué la mort) by René Berton

Editorial Reviews

“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