Word: guignol
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...half-century at the blind end of a cobbled alley in Montmartre, le Théâtre du Grand Guignol has become a synonym for blood-drenched horror on the stage. Until the war came along, its 293 seats were filled nightly with a faithful, shuddering clientele. Its finest hour came one night when a woman in the audience swooned at the sight of two harridans gouging out a girl's eyes in their madhouse cell; the management called for the house doctor, but he had passed...
...Twists. The war made horror trite and started emptying the Grand Guignol's seats. Another blow: the theater's chief playwright, Andre ("Prince of Terror") de Lorde, died (in bed) at the age of 90. No new twists in torture or tricks of realism-e.g., "blood" that coagulates as it cools-could lure the crowds back. Even worse, the sounds of skulls being crushed and bodies plopping into acid vats began drawing guffaws instead of gasps. Things got so bad that couples who took the curtained boxes in the rear of the house looked to themselves rather...
Last week, swallowing national pride, the Grand Guignol was modernizing with a shocker based on a trashy British novel about U.S. gangsters, Rene Raymond's No Orchids for Miss Blandish. For the benefit of patriots, Mme. Berkson explained: "It's just that we're bringing the tradition up to date...
...Antigone's. And with a temerity as notable as her talent, Actress Anderson (Macbeth, The Three Sisters) brought those emotions spectacularly out into the open. She flung aside both classic control and realistic restraint. She played Medea half in the grand manner, half in the Grand Guignol manner; she used every wile of body and face, every art of voice and gesture, to produce something possibly mixed or impure-but definitely, undeniably overwhelming...
Died. Max Maurey, 77, French playwright and founder of Paris' famed Grand-Guignol (see THEATER) ; in Neuilly, France...