Available for Touring
A collaboration between the Grand Guignolers of Los Angeles and Longshadr.
HOT AND COLD SHOWERS: Three Grand Guignol Shorts in the classic style. They were traditionally performed together in one evening with the same actors. First, is a psychological thriller. Second, is a comic brutal farce with tiny puppets. Third is splatter.
GRAND GUIGNOL The theatre of terror and laughter
Once the most popular entertainment in Europe, Grand Guignol is an exciting theatre form that begat current thriller and horror films. Rarely seen, this “theatre of laughter and terror” explores our fascination with the macabre, playing with the violation of society’s taboos. Grand Guignol is wildly physical, intensely psychological, and filled with gruesome special effects (often closely held secrets) that so terrified the Grand Guignol audiences that a medical doctor was on hand for every performance to treat those who passed out from shock!
Both Debbie McMahon, artistic director of the Grand Guignolers and Michael Fields, director of Longshadr have a long history of working with this unique theatre form, both in Europe and the US. Fields got the best review he has ever received for the Grand Guignol he directed in Stockholm Sweden. They said that he had “kicked the ass of Swedish society”. He is not sure how, but he’ll take it.
IRISH GHOST STORIES
A new collaboration in development between the Grand Guignolers of
Los Angeles and Longshadr.
It is a Spooky Ceilidh. Storytelling of the most evocative traditional Irish Ghost stories accompanied by classic Irish music. Perfect to play in bars and non-traditional spaces.
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RADIOMAN (www.radiomantheplay.org)
This play sold out its initial run at Dell’Arte. Written by Jim McManus it is based on the life experience of Eric Hollenback and his time in the A Shau Valley in 1968 during the Vietnam war as a radioman (they have a 6 second life expectancy in a fire fight). When Eric came home he put his experience down in a book called UNCLE SAM’S TOUR GUIDE TO SOUTHEAST ASIA.
RADIOMAN blends these stories through to current military conflicts across race, gender, rank and file. The stories from the jungles of Vietnam, the battlefields of Iraq and Afganistan, Blue Ox Historic Village and the triumphant construction of the historic recreation of Lincolns Hearse by a team of vets (created from a single old photo) all have love as a common theme. This is the love that allows the survivors and their families to make their journeys toward healing and redemption.