SCRIPTS USED AT THE GRAND GUIGNOL

The number of produced plays for the Grand Guignol is close to 1200 different dramas and sketches, of which one-third were frequently re-staged over several seasons. "Some eighty or ninety appeared in print, either individually in contemporary journals and limited edition volumes or in play collections" (Gordon, 51). The plots of many of the Grand Guignol, especially written by Andre de Lorde, one of the theatre's great playwrights, contain more than one theme. Helplesssness, insanity, surgery, and vengeance were common among these. Fear and laughter were the overriding emotions.

 

Some of the more popular plays were Le Laboratoire des hallucinations, 1916, Au Petit Jour, 1921, Les Jardin des supplices, 1922, La Maison des hommes vivants, 1923, Un Crime dans une maison de fous, 1925, Le Baiser de sang, 1929.

Here are a list of some scripts to check out under each theme:

HORROR PLAYS

HELPLESSNESS:

At the Telephone (other images)

The Land fo Fright

The Workshop for the Blind

In the Face of Death

The Grip fo Death, or the Hands of Hardouin

The Blind Ship

No Orchids for Miss Blandish

INFANTICIDE:

The Final Torture

The Obsession

Sabotage

The Keepers of the Lighthouse

The Dead Child

Rapid 13

INSANITY:

The System of Dr. Goudron and Prof. Plume

A Concert at the Madhouse

The Mysterious Man

The Cabinet of Caligari

The Eyes of the Ghost

The Naked Man

MUTILATION:

The Little House of Auteuil

Hsioung-Pe-Ling, or the Bloody Aloutte

The Mark of the Beast

The Man of the Night

The Garden of Torture

A Crime in the Madhouse

The Kiss of Blood

The Bloody Trunk

Orgy in the Lighthouse

MYSTERIOUS DEATH:

Sol Hyams, the Pawnbroker

The Man Who Saw the Devil

The Siege of Berlin

Crucified, or the Night of the Twelfth of May, 1848

Gott Mit Uns

SUFFERING OF THE INNOCENT:

The Castle of Slow Death

The Night of Terror

The Three Masks

The Cell 13

The Merchant of Corpes

SUICIDE:

Night at the Hampton Club

The Prison for Children

Hara Kiri

SURGERY:

A Lesson at Salpetriere

The Horrible Experiment

The Laboratory of Hallucinations

The Man who Killed Death

VENGEANCE:

The Cargo Fraud

The Dead Rat, Room No. 6

The Closed Door

Hot Earth

A Kiss in the Night

The Experiment of Dr. Lorde

The Mask

Catherine Goulden

At the Break of Day

The Coffin of Flesh

The Maker of Monsters

 

COMEDIES AND FARCES:

Bourgeois Morality:

Scruples

The Serious Little Maid

An ambitions Man

The Chauffeur

At the Cosy Corner

Led by the Nose, or Nounouche

The Recommendation

On the Bench

Sauce for the Goose

The Fox

I want You to Go to Sleep

CUCKOLDRY:

Tics

Madame Aurelie

A Third Act

Take my Lady

SEX FARCE:

Night Attack

The Seductress

The Short Circuit

The Flask

Oen Hour of Love

Alone

A Not so Serious Client

To Kill Time

The Snows of D'Antan

SUFFERING OF THE INNOCENT:

The Cornfields

Interview

The Chemist

The Room Next Door

The Bronze Lady and the Crystal Gentleman

The Neglected

DRAMATIC PLAYS:

"CRASS" MANNERS:

Little Bugger

Meat-Ticket

Mademoiselle Fifi

Him

The Microbe Merchant, of the Girl With the Overies

An Affair of Morals

GUILT:

The White Madness

Under the Red Light

On the Slab

The Red Inn

The Visitor

INJUSTICE:

The Catwalk

The Woman Who Was Acquitted

The Sound of the Gong

 

 

 

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