The Big List of Grand Guignol Plays

The Grand Guignol Theatre produced upwards of 1000 different plays over its sixty-five year history. We've compiled a list of more than 850 of them. The titles are sorted by the year they premiered, with a different page for each decade. Where possible, we've included an English translation of the title, the genre, and the author's name. Click the link above to start at the beginning, or choose a link below to jump to your favorite decade.

1890's | 1900's | 1910's | 1920's | 1930's | 1940's | 1950's | 1960's

Special thanks to Agnes Pierron, who was kind enough to let us use her
"Calendrier des Spectacles" as the basis for our list.

Published Translations

The question we are probably asked most often is "Where can I find Grand Guignol scripts in English?" Until recently, there were very few translations published. Now, there are more than a dozen you can get your hands on pretty easily:

Ten plays are translated in the book Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror by Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson. Each is preceded by a very thorough introduction, which really helps put the plays in context:

Jack (Lui)
by Oscar Metenier

The Ultimate Torture (La Derniere Torture)
by Andre de Lorde and Eugene Morel

The Lighthouse Keepers (Gardiens de phare)
by Paul Autier and Paul Cloquemin

Chop-Chop! or The Guillotine (La Veuve)
by Eugene Heros and Leon Abric

Tics, or Doing the Deed (Apres Coup!... ou Tics)
by Rene Berton

In the Darkroom (Sous la lumiere rouge)
by Maurice Level and Etienne Rey

The Final Kiss (Le Baiser dans la nuit)
by Maurice Level

The Torture Garden (Le Jardin des supplices)
by Pierre Chaine and Andre de Lorde

Euthanasia (L'Euthanasie ou le Devoir de teur)
by Rene Berton

The Kiss of Blood (Le Baiser du sang)
by Jean Aragny and Francis Neilson

Two translations can be found in each edition of Mel Gordon's book The Grand Guignol: Theatre of Fear and Terror. This book is currently out of print, but is occasionally spotted on Ebay or may be found in your local library. Please note that the first and second editions of this book include different plays:

First Edition (1988):

Laboratory of Hallucinations
(Le Laboratoire des hallucinations)
by André de Lorde and Henri Bauche

The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether
(Le Systéme du Dr Goudron et Pr Plume)
by André de Lorde (after Edgar A. Poe)

Second Edition (1997):

A Crime in a Madhouse
(Un crime dans une maison de fous)
by André de Lorde and Alfred Binet

The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether
(Le Systéme du Dr Goudron et Pr Plume)
by André de Lorde (after Edgar A. Poe)

Translations Online

On the web, Gaslight has made available an English translation of At the Telephone (Au Téléphone) by André de Lorde.

 

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Sites of Interest

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This site is brought to you by Thrillpeddlers, a San Francisco-based theatre company which has been translating and performing Grand Guignol plays for over a decade. We've created this site to help introduce people to the art and history of the Grand Guignol, and to serve as a forum for people from all over the world to discuss and share information about this unique theatrical movement.

Copyright © 2006 Thrillpeddlers, San Francisco.