The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-10
From the New York Times.

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 PO worse paved alley leading out of a Montmartre street, is one of the most curious theatres in Paris and per haps in the world. It announces itself by an illuminated sign projecting into the street, and when you have groped and stumbled your way to the door you are at first inclined to treat the concern as a joke. The Theatre du Grand Guig- nol' means if you take it literally big Punch -and-Judy show This is part of the joke, for the performances are cer- tainly not intended for the young. And yet, to appreciate the Grand Guignol, it is wise to become, for the moment at any rate. as youthful as possible, for the Grand Guignol appeals to the primitive emotions, and if you cannot understand why children laugh and weep so readily you had better go elsewhere for your en- tertainment. The Grand Guignol, with all the self-depreciation of its title is a place to which people go expecting to be hor- rifed and amused; to have cold shivers down the spine, and to laugh heartily be- tween whles, and above all not to blush;
  censed jester and discusses subjects sell dom mentioned in polite society.
 The fare provided is in tabloid form, very strongly favored The bill contains at least five and often six plays, usually consisting of not more than two scenes apiece. There is no attempt at scenic display In fact, the stage setting is, not ntt,f and the costumes do not look as if they came from the Rue de la Paix. The the atre holds barely 200 people, and is so small that every one is near the stage. This seems to have been thought good ground for not trying to produce any H. lusions by means of scenery or makeup. People who come to be fed on strong meat need not be too particular about the plates in which it is served.
 The Grand Guignoi began life as side show of the Paris exposition in l9O0 M Max Maurey, who started and still runs it. acted on the principle that people who went to the exhibition for an evening amusement would be tempted by a thea- tre only If the plays were short and vivid. He decided to work two well-dehned veins-the horrible and the humorous and he did so with so much success that the Grand Guignol has remained a perma- nent feature of Paris theatreland. In the seven years of it's existence the Grand Guienol has brought out nearly 200 new pieces of all kinds, from mere curtain raisers to blood-freezing two-act trage- dies None of the great names among French playwrights are on the list, but plenty of clever work has been done by such men as Octave Mirbeau, Aurelien Scholl Oscar Metenier Claude Roland, Gemier (now director of the Theatre An tone), Henri Lavendan, Georges Courte- line. Charles Foley, Max Maurey himself and many rising writers.
 The great feature has always heen real ism carried to limits approached by no other theatre Nothing is thought too appalling if only it gives the required thrill In one play, "Deniere Torture,' the audience was treated to the sight of a French soldier who was supposed to have been impaed by Boxers, after hay ing had his eyelids and hands cut off. The dying struggles of half d dozen men in a submarine which has sunk to the bottom of the ocean and the guillotining of a man by accident are among other cheerful subjects which have been served up. Of course, there is no literary merit worth mentioning in these plays; the spectacle is the thing, and it does not re- quire much art to put 1urid newspaper story into two short acts. The Grand Guignols humorous pieces are of a high CT order. Their dialogue is usually rich in the paradoxical and ironical wit where in French humorsts delight.
 The inside of the theatre is very quaint. It has a high oak roof which would not look at all out of place in a church. The front of the balcony is carved ,in way that vaguely suggests choir stalls, and