Hanging out alone.

metalonmetalblog:

The Grand Guignol was a theatre of legendary cult status, operating in Paris for 65 years, between 1897 and 1962. From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows. It produced, almost exclusively, one-act plays from 10 to 40 minutes in length, and was infamous for the production of violent and erotic works of horror.

The theatre was opened by Oscar Metenier, a writer and police secretary, who created slice-of-life plays about the Parisian underlife and stories of true crime. Metenier was a follower of Naturalism: a movement in late 19th Century theatre that attempted to create a perfect illusion of reality. Naturalistic works often exposed the dark harshness of life, with themes of poverty, racism, sex, prejudice, disease, prostitution, and filth.

Max Maurey incorporated melodrama into the Grand-Guignol’s acting style to heighten the emotion of the more sensational elements while keeping Naturalism as the guiding principle for characters and situations. It was under Maurey that the style of the Grand Guignol became renowned throughout Europe and, eventually, the world. The term ‘Grand Guignol’ has even passed into the English language, as a phrase referring to any bloody spectacle or violent entertainment.

Paula Maxa was one of the Grand Guignol’s best-known performers. From 1917 to the 1930s, she performed most frequently as a victim and was known as “the most assassinated woman in the world”. During her career at the Grand Guignol, Maxa’s characters were murdered more than 10,000 times in at least 60 different ways and raped at least 3,000 times.

Spectators would regularly faint in the early days of the theatre: indeed, a doctor was reputedly kept on hand at all times – although on one occasion when the doctor’s assistance was required, he was unable to help, having already fainted himself!

Audiences waned in the years following World War II, and the Grand Guignol closed its doors in 1962. Management attributed the closure in part to the fact that the theater’s faux horrors had been eclipsed by the actual events of the Holocaust two decades earlier. “We could never equal Buchenwald,” said its final director, Charles Nonon. “Before the war, everyone felt that what was happening onstage was impossible. Now we know that these things, and worse, are possible in reality.”

Wish I could have seen this!

(via monsterman)