New Interview: Voices from the House of Zophiel

I had the distinct pleasure of appearing on Voices from the House of Zophiel where Nat Clegg and I discussed performance, transgression, and my research on the Parisian Theatre of sex and violence, the Theatre du Grand-Guignol.

The Grand Guignol was founded in 1897 as a Naturalist theatre in the seedy heart of Pigalle, the notorious red light district of Paris. Over half a century of its existence, the theatre became a chapel of horrors where gruesome displays of hyperrealistic violence were performed on stage before a live and ravenous audience. Eyes were gouged out, bodies burned, heads chopped off, jealous lovers burned with acid, and infants crushed beneath wooden planks, all to the thrilling shrieks of the most fashionable audiences in Paris.

The Grand Guignol prefigured the modern horror film as well as the confrontational dramatic theories of Antonin Artaud. It was a favourite destination for tourists, royalty, adulterers, Apaches, pornographers, and degenerates. The audience included the surrealists, Anias Nin, Aleister Crowley, and many other luminaries. In this podcast I share some of the history of this little Theatre of horror and its impact which we still feel in popular culture to this day.

Thank you to Nat for inviting me on.

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