‘Grand Guignol’ at Off the Wall

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On Halloween weekend, Off the Wall Theatre opened a program of horror shorts drawn from the long tradition of Europe’s highly influential Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol. Off the Wall’s Grand Guignol is a 90-minute program of four shorts that reach into the heart of cruelty and psychological horror. As with any program of shorts, there are moments here that aren’t terribly electrifying, but the dreamlike parade of dark narratives maintains a shadowy charm from beginning to end that lends a warm embrace to the chilly gloom of autumn.

There are some really haunting performances here. Randall T. Anderson makes a typically memorable appearance in a clown-based horror tale set in a mental asylum. Jeremy C. Welter makes a powerfully minimalist impression as an iron-willed Chinese representative visiting a Western general in The Final Torture. Welter also summons quite a bit of dazzling darkness in a short program-ending musical manifestation of the revenge drama Pagliacci. Its reality versus theater climax is interesting, but the brutality doesn’t quite deliver on the potential of the classic tale (best known as a full-length opera) in short form. Violence is extremely difficult to bring across with any believability onstage and the intense intimacy of one of smallest stages imaginable makes this all the more difficult. Welter’s chilling malice when addressing the audience at the grizzly end saves it from failure.

By far the most perfectly balanced short on the program uses the space’s intimacy to maximum effect as Max Williamson and Jocelyn Ridgely deliciously twist each other through the sinister emotional contortions and distortions of a lusciously creepy revenge drama in The Kiss.

Through Nov. 8 at Off the Wall Theatre, 127 E. Wells St. For tickets, visit offthewalltheatre.com or call 414-484-8874.