Editing Grand Guignol (section)

==Plays==
[[File:Grand-Guignol-Scène-1937 (2).jpg|thumb|right|A 1937 scene from Grand Guignol]]
In a typical Grand Guignol performance patrons would see five or six short plays, all in a style that attempted to be brutally true to the theater's [[naturalism (theatre)|naturalistic]] ideals. The most popular and best-known were the horror plays, which featured a distinctly bleak worldview and gory special effects, particularly in their climaxes. The horrors depicted at Grand Guignol were generally not [[supernatural]]; rather these plays often explored altered states like insanity, [[hypnosis]], or [[panic]]. To heighten the effect, the horror plays were often alternated with comedies, a lineup referred to as "hot and cold showers."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.grandguignol.com/|title=What is Grand Guignol?|publisher=Grand Guignol Online|access-date=2007-04-10|archive-date=2007-09-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927011827/http://www.grandguignol.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=GS>{{cite news|last=Pierron|first=Agnes|url=http://www.grandguignol.com/grandstreet.htm|title=House of Horrors|work=Grand Street Magazine|date=Summer 1996|access-date=2007-04-10|archive-date=2007-09-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927011853/http://www.grandguignol.com/grandstreet.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Examples of Grand Guignol horror shows included:
* ''Le Laboratoire des Hallucinations'', by [[André de Lorde]]: When a doctor finds his wife's lover in his operating room, he performs a graphic brain surgery, rendering the adulterer a hallucinating semi-zombie. Now insane, the lover/patient hammers a chisel into the doctor's brain.<ref name=Time1947>{{cite news|url=http://www.grandguignol.com/time1947.htm|title=Murders in the Rue Chaptal|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=March 10, 1947|access-date=2007-04-10|archive-date=2006-05-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060518091516/http://www.grandguignol.com/time1947.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Un Crime dans une Maison de Fous'', by André de Lorde: Two hags in an insane asylum use scissors to blind a pretty young fellow inmate out of jealousy.<ref name=Time1947 />
* ''L'Horrible Passion'', by André de Lorde: A nanny strangles the children in her care.<ref name=GS />
* ''Le Baiser dans la Nuit'', by [[Maurice Level]]: A young woman visits the man whose face she horribly disfigured with acid, and he obtains his revenge.<ref>[http://theatredamned.blogspot.com/2010/11/violence-and-vitriol-exploring-le.html Violence and Vitriol&nbsp;– Exploring 'Le Baiser dans la nuit'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708065633/http://theatredamned.blogspot.com/2010/11/violence-and-vitriol-exploring-le.html |date=2011-07-08 }} Retrieved 2011-02-01.</ref>