Join our band of curios and support the Grand Guignol Variety Hour at Coney Island Museum on Saturday, December 10th

THE INSPIRATION
From its beginnings in turn-of-the-century Paris and through its decline in the 1960s, the Theatre of the Grand Guignol gleefully celebrated horror, sex, and fear. Its infamous productions featured innocent victims, mangled beauty, insanity, mutilation, humour, sex, and monstrous depravity in a heady mix that attracted throngs of thrill-seekers from all echelons of society. By dissecting primal taboos in an unprecedentedly graphic manner, the Grand Guignol became the progenitor of all the blood-spilling, eye-gouging, and limb-hacking splatter movies of today.

THE PROJECT
Presented by Atlas Obscura, Coney Island Museum, and Morbid Anatomy, our event will be a one-night-only ode to The Grand Guignol and its legacy. Our evening of variety theatre will be dedicated to such Guignol-esque and fin de sicle pleasures as the uncanny; spectacular illusions; sex and death, elegance and horror; tableau vivants; occult tinged magic shows; phantasmagoria; hysteria; contortionists; toy theatre; puppets; optical tricks and much more! 

Our evening of variety theatre was developed in conversation with Mel Gordon, author of Grand Guiginol: Theatre of Fear and Terror; Participants will include Jonny Clockworks, Angela Di Carlo, Doll Parts, Meg Moseley, Robert Munn, GF Newland, Melissa Roth, Sarah Schoemann, Shannon Taggart, Alison Termine, Ronni Thomas, and Kathleen Kennedy Tobin with a newly commissioned set by NYUs Chris Muller and the role of Master or Ceremonies filled by Lord Whimsy. Projects include stagings of classic Grand Guignol plays, a toy theater version of Bryusovs The Sisters, a harmonious and creepy rendition of Dry Bones, WWI 3D glass plate projection with theremin accompaniment, an installation of classic Grand Guignol posters, and more, all followed by an after-party with music and Hendricks Gin cocktails courtesy of Friese Undine.

VISUALS

To see what we are going for on an aesthetic level, click here to see our Grand Guignol Moodboard. Be sure to scroll down and click on images to see larger versions.

THE NEED

Your donation will go directly to the artists involved, providing them with a small honorarium and production budget for their piece. All donors will receive advance word about buying tickets to the event. Theres a limited capacity so to guarantee yourself a ticket, consider giving at least $100.

Pledge your support now and get ready to geek out with us.

Joanna Ebenstein & John Del Gaudio

Co-Curators