Grand Guignol: The Theatre of Horror, the Efficacy of Horrific Staging, and When My Body Cried Out

Date
2017-05
Authors
Anderson, Angie Taylor
Contributor
Advisor
Sammons, Todd
Department
English
Instructor
Depositor
Speaker
Researcher
Consultant
Interviewer
Annotator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Volume
Number/Issue
Starting Page
Ending Page
Alternative Title
Abstract
Grand Guignol is a French genre of theatre that exploited the very strong and real human experience of intense fear in order to create impactful pieces of drama that, though fleeting, affected people deeply and sparked the flame of modern concepts of gore, shock, and thrill. The genre originated in Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol, founded by Oscar Méténier in Paris during the late 19th century. The theatre staged gruesome naturalistic plays until its close in 1962, during which time audience members experienced shocking scenes of gore and violence. Today, because of the realistic nature of film and TV, theatrical horror can appear cheap and melodramatic. When My Body Cried Out is an original one-act play written as an exploration of the Guignol genre in an effort to inspire a reinvigoration of its effective horror aesthetics. This play is an investigative endeavor towards applying surviving Guignol aesthetics in modern theatre and film to new, compelling, and believable theatrical horror. Richard Hand and Michael Wilson’s book Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror was a key component to identifying these aesthetics; this text is one of the most comprehensive and widely-referenced pieces of literature on Grand Guignol and includes short, translated Grand Guignol plays. This new one-act play incorporates Guignol traditions of uninhibited, visceral shock and gore while also integrating modern horror aesthetics such as psychological terror and thrill. When My Body Cried Out is a story about the stigmas of mental illness and the monsters lurking in plain sight.
Description
Keywords
Grand Guignol, horror, theatre
Citation
Extent
59 pages
Format
Geographic Location
Time Period
Related To
Table of Contents
Rights
All UHM Honors Projects are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
Rights Holder
Local Contexts
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.