ABSTRACT
Grand Guignol' is a term that designates both a specific place and also a genre of theatre. As place, it refers to the original Grand Guignol theatre – the 'theatre des peurs' located in Pigalle, which operated from 1897 until it finally closed down in 1962. Surrealism has always maintained a somewhat ambivalent relationship with theatre. From the time of the Litterature group of the early postwar years, Andre Breton and his circle included theatre amongst their literary experiments in the form of short sketches, as with Breton and Philippe Soupault's S'il vous plait or Roger Vitrac's Poison. Such works tended to be essentially textual pieces, showing little concern for the mechanics of actually staging the work and were conceived more as occasional events in the manner of Dada performances, rather than as plays to be performed over a period of time.
