"The Grand Guignol" - French shock theater at Skidmore
By Eric Shapiro - Skidmore News - 5/23/2010
A whirlwind of blood, screams, limbs and disembodied laughter has arrived at the college.
At 8 p.m. April 23 and 24 and 2 p.m. April 25, the theater department will perform its mainstage production of "The Grand Guignol" in the Janet Kinghorn Bernard Theater. The show, directed by alumni Yehuda Duenyas '96, played to packed audiences on April 16, 17 and 18.
"We've sold out for two shows so far, which is pretty unheard of for a mainstage show," said Elizabeth Karp '11, box office manger for the theater department.
She attributes this success in part to the fact that two side sections are closed off. However, she describes overall response to the show as "overwhelmingly positive."
As of April 22, tickets are available for all of the remaining dates except April 24.
The production takes its name from the now-defunct le Theatre du Grand-Guignol, which operated in Paris from 1897 to 1962, functioning as an homage of sorts to its blend of grizzly horror and black comedy.
"The Grand Guignol" is a double feature, consisting of two plays.
The first, "Le Baiser dans la nuit ('A Kiss in the Night')," a rendition of the 1912 original, tells the story of a man who is forced to have his face wrapped in bandages after his spurned fiancée douses his face in acid.
It is not particularly memorable, but serves nonetheless to set the tone for what's going to come.
Following a brief comedic interlude in which the entirety of the production's sizeable cast participates, "Nunky Gruel or a Stranger is as the Dew," an original work written by Normandy Raven Sherwood, make a bid for the audiences' last meal.
The plot revolves around an all-girl boarding school whose residents are subjected to horrific experiments by a mad scientist and his depraved assistants.
The play synthesizes the over-the-top shock horror characteristic of the Theatre du Grand Guignol with a modern pop culture consciousness, culminating in a bloody spectacle that will leave audience members either vomiting or rolling in the aisles, depending on their constitution.
"Nunky Gruel" is without a doubt the highlight of the whole blood-soaked affair. The plot is hardly memorable, but then that is hardly the point.
Rather, Sherwood capably lampoons the gross-out horror genre in an entertaining and occasionally revealing manner.
He and Duenyas approach their satire with an enthusiast's eye for detail and authenticity, calling to mind less the trashy schtick of the "Scary Movie" franchise and more the painstaking craft and self-awareness Quentin Tarantino's riveting genre exercises.
One is particularly reminded of the aforementioned director's 2007 film "Grindhouse," with its unabashedly voyeuristic take on the form of theater from which it takes its name.
Like Tarantino, Sherwood peppers his script with pop cultural references. Interspersed with whirlwinds of gory slapstick, soundtrack selections call attention to the similarity between the forms of vicarious pleasure we take in watching blood spatter and celebrities debauching themselves for our amusement.
If there is any overall point to the latter play in "The Grand Guignol" beyond historical resurrection, it is to point out this similarity.
Otherwise, "Nunky Gruel" is an exceptionally well executed but largely insular genre exercise. Whether this is good or bad depends on one's interest in what the founders of le Theatre du Grand Guignol termed "naturalistic horror."
You'd best not eat a heavy meal before this show. And don't take small children. They will be scarred for life.
A whirlwind of blood, screams, limbs and disembodied laughter has arrived at the college.
At 8 p.m. April 23 and 24 and 2 p.m. April 25, the theater department will perform its mainstage production of "The Grand Guignol" in the Janet Kinghorn Bernard Theater. The show, directed by alumni Yehuda Duenyas '96, played to packed audiences on April 16, 17 and 18.
"We've sold out for two shows so far, which is pretty unheard of for a mainstage show," said Elizabeth Karp '11, box office manger for the theater department.
She attributes this success in part to the fact that two side sections are closed off. However, she describes overall response to the show as "overwhelmingly positive."
As of April 22, tickets are available for all of the remaining dates except April 24.
The production takes its name from the now-defunct le Theatre du Grand-Guignol, which operated in Paris from 1897 to 1962, functioning as an homage of sorts to its blend of grizzly horror and black comedy.
"The Grand Guignol" is a double feature, consisting of two plays.
The first, "Le Baiser dans la nuit ('A Kiss in the Night')," a rendition of the 1912 original, tells the story of a man who is forced to have his face wrapped in bandages after his spurned fiancée douses his face in acid.
It is not particularly memorable, but serves nonetheless to set the tone for what's going to come.
Following a brief comedic interlude in which the entirety of the production's sizeable cast participates, "Nunky Gruel or a Stranger is as the Dew," an original work written by Normandy Raven Sherwood, make a bid for the audiences' last meal.
The plot revolves around an all-girl boarding school whose residents are subjected to horrific experiments by a mad scientist and his depraved assistants.
The play synthesizes the over-the-top shock horror characteristic of the Theatre du Grand Guignol with a modern pop culture consciousness, culminating in a bloody spectacle that will leave audience members either vomiting or rolling in the aisles, depending on their constitution.
"Nunky Gruel" is without a doubt the highlight of the whole blood-soaked affair. The plot is hardly memorable, but then that is hardly the point.
Rather, Sherwood capably lampoons the gross-out horror genre in an entertaining and occasionally revealing manner.
He and Duenyas approach their satire with an enthusiast's eye for detail and authenticity, calling to mind less the trashy schtick of the "Scary Movie" franchise and more the painstaking craft and self-awareness Quentin Tarantino's riveting genre exercises.
One is particularly reminded of the aforementioned director's 2007 film "Grindhouse," with its unabashedly voyeuristic take on the form of theater from which it takes its name.
Like Tarantino, Sherwood peppers his script with pop cultural references. Interspersed with whirlwinds of gory slapstick, soundtrack selections call attention to the similarity between the forms of vicarious pleasure we take in watching blood spatter and celebrities debauching themselves for our amusement.
If there is any overall point to the latter play in "The Grand Guignol" beyond historical resurrection, it is to point out this similarity.
Otherwise, "Nunky Gruel" is an exceptionally well executed but largely insular genre exercise. Whether this is good or bad depends on one's interest in what the founders of le Theatre du Grand Guignol termed "naturalistic horror."
You'd best not eat a heavy meal before this show. And don't take small children. They will be scarred for life.