This time around, the dastardly, devious, and diabolical Eric Woolfe’s imaginative, creatively depraved sleight of hand takes centre stage as both playwright and director.
It’s quite the theatrical treat, but be aware of a few important details.
First, Woolfe’s script is not meant for the kiddos, so please don’t bring them.
‘Night at the Grand Guignol’ takes the audience back to a distinct social and cultural era. It’s the 1920s, in a tiny, dingy Parisian theatre, the first Horror Theatre known in French as Le Théâtre du Grand Guignol. What could patrons of the theatre (that closed in 1962) expect at each show? Stories of blood-drenched, sexually depraved, and horrible horrifying horrors (according to the Eldritch Theatre website) are part of the evening’s entertainment.
That macabre element clearly drove French audiences to see the shows. Audiences knew what to expect: the gruesome, the terrifying, the weird and the whacky. People wanted this, sought it out, craved it, and paid for it as part of their entertainment.
Has that kind of thinking changed in the twenty-first century? Are people still seeking out these sick-minded, twisted storylines as part of their entertainment today?
Apparently so.
I don’t want to spoil any of the pre-show hilarity that audience members are advised to follow upon entering Eldritch Theatre’s Queen Street East haunt. On the night I attended, Woolfe worked the door and told patrons to do something before they took their seats. As the dutiful playgoer, I did what I was told and couldn’t continue because I was laughing so much.
The audience enters a shadowy theatre setting. Designer Melanie McNeill’s regal-looking velvet theatre curtains frame the proscenium above the stage. Some props are visible while others are covered. At the top of the show, the sexy and seductive Natalia Bushik, Jeanie Calleja, and Pip Dwyer open with a big-hearted welcome and some suggestive dance moves and curves by Choreographer Leah Wilton that are definitely not for the easily offended. These sultry gals satirically poke fun at how the Grand Guignol’s intimate dinginess is probably no different from the current Queen Street East establishment in which we currently find ourselves.
Ah, that devilish playwright and director, Eric Woolfe. He can gently poke fun at himself one minute while surreptitiously ribbing the audience the next. He’s keen, smart and creative in his direction. Woolfe’s script provides a hilariously wicked context for the dark and the macabre without taking itself seriously at all. Bushik, Calleja and Dwyer remain a confident ensemble of grotesque players who narrate and perform the violent, shocking, and often graphic text with marvellous aplomb, cognizant of keeping the show’s pacing brisk without the performance feeling rushed. There are blood-curdling screams that reverberate off the walls from the intimate Red Sandcastle Theatre.
Remember that the script’s dark, contextual humour is all in good-natured fun. We don’t often associate this macabre humour with entertainment, but in this specific context and performance, it truly is.
There is a flipside to all this.
Has this search for this kind of entertainment really changed? Are people still drawn to the macabre, the horrifying and the gruesome?
Apparently so, if what is being found in the Epstein files is akin to the storylines of the Grand Guignol.
Let’s not forget context, okay? Two separate issues are going on here.
Recommended to see Night at the Grand Guignol. Just go in with eyes wide open, not ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (see what I did there?)
Running time: approximately 90 minutes with no interval/intermission.
The production runs to March 1 at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, 922 Queen Street East, Toronto. For tickets: eldritchtheatre.ca
ELDRITCH THEATRE presents
NIGHT AT THE GRAND GUIGNOL written and directed by Eric Woolfe
Set and Costumes designed by Melanie McNeill
Choreography: Leah Wilton
Stage Manager: Leah Wilton
Performers: Jeanie Calleja, Pip Dwyer, and Natalia Bushnik
