Word: guignols
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American Grand Guignol. One might expect the French horror-plays, in view of the season's successful exploitation of all phases of sex perversion, to prove fascinating box-office material. Not so. Perhaps it is because the theatre is way down in one of the Greenwich Village nooks of inaccessibility; possibly because one-act plays do not sell in Manhattan; possibly, also, because the production is heavyhanded. In one play, a paralytic suddenly discovers he has the ability to strangle daughter-in-law, which he does with gusto. In another, choice Chinese diabolisms are dramatized. On the whole, there...
...supporting company is fairly adequate, though it occasionally mistakesi foaming at the mouth for historianism. The settings seem to have been gathered up from the ruins of the Grand Guignol Players...
...Russian or Italian or French, though the nicer turns of phrase leave him relatively cold. There are always redeeming features. There are the coiling hands of Duse. There is the highly cultivated naturalness of the Moscow players. There are the snakes and daggers and dark shadows of the Grand Guignol...
...Grand Guignol occupies a unique niche in the theatrical world; faithful followers of the drama can hardly omit it from their agenda and retain the while their self-respect. For the casual amusement seeker the entertainment is only mildly recommended. Particularly if his linguistic equipment is limited to "oui" and "Zelli...
...Grand Guignol is a French repertory company operating normally in a converted church at the end of the Rue Chaptal, Paris. They specialize in farce and bizarre tragedy...