The Mailer Review/Volume 2, 2008/Mailer at the Théâtre Du Grand Guignol

Written by
Daniele Pantano

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Note: “Le Théâtre du Grand Guignol” refers to the notorious Parisian shock theatre founded in 1897 by Oscar Méténier, the naturalistic playwright. It closed in 1962.

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URL: https://prmlr.us/mr02pan

Fifty lifeless characters animated.

The audience, astonished, reflects upon the preeminent importance:
A curtain that never falls.

Performance and terror often contain an unconscious existence.

Vacuous eyes

Nonchalantly rising above any great and definite achievement,
While the Playbill attends a memorable ceremony:

A writer’s death flanked by language.

The stage conceives a stranger, a sage, matters of occultism,
In an attempt to stimulate man’s inner need
To move toward an addressable reality.

But the audience still believes in imitation, nothing more . . .

The applause raucous.