We are so deluged by horror and gore these days that it’s easy to glibly pass by warnings about shocking content: don’t make that mistake with this evening of short plays at the Sewell Barn.
Inspired by the Parisian Grand Guignol, five of the six plays revive early 20th century stories, switching from dark and menacing to sexually transgressive – and sometimes muddling the two. These are presented by Indigo Douglas as a prowling hostess, interspersing the stories with suggestive banter and tongue-in-cheek challenges to be brave.
The undeniable shock however is the final piece, written in 2013 and dealing with very modern, all too real, horror in a way that seems much colder and out of step – in fact even Douglas as MC switches to modern dress and appears to disown in it, telling us we are “on your own”.
The pieces are performed by a fifteen-strong ensemble, with many appearing across the pieces – Shem Jacobs gives several contrasting, skilful performances, with Alexandra Evans also putting in multiple impressive appearances.
The Barn’s backstage crew also flexes its muscles, with Philip Williamson and Myles Crowther’s set – and guillotine prop – making elegantly light work out of the necessary scene changes to transport us to a museum, a brothel, and an asylum and more besides. No challenge with a fly tower and backlot, but impressive with the extremely limited space at this venue.
For the initial five revival pieces, this could be viewed as a interesting oddity – an early Halloween romp through dark but – by modern standards – relatively tame stories as captured by it’s subtitle “a night of horror and hilarity”. The first (about a lover’s cruel revenge) is a little slow and thin but the remainder are sprightly and morbidly entertaining enough. The fifth – the horror of finding a copy of the Kama Sutra in a button-done household – almost steps into farce as it ramps up to a silly but fun finale.
But the final piece (Les William’s We’ll Fix It!), and its use of elements of a real-world celebrity child abuse scandal, make it into something very different, and much more disturbing. It is right that theatre should be able to explore any topic – and the Barn has bravely tackled some difficult ones in recent programming – but I’m not sure this combination of pieces was the right one.
Grand Guignol: A Night of Horror and Hilarity continues at Sewell Barn Theatre, Norwich until 19 October 2024.
