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.