The Grand Guignol Children's Show* (*Not For Children) presents old folk tales in the style of Grand Guignol. Folk tales and Grand Guignol seem an appropriate match in that both depict our basic fears and desires with themes of revenge, envy, sanity, and rage, and of course bloody outcomes. In Grand Guignol and folk tales, we know something of what to expect. The outcomes are not surprises, rather the suspense lies in the build to witness what we expect.

The old tales were shared orally and only later collected and written, in 17th Century France by Perrault and later in 19th Century Germany by the Grimm brothers. The Grimms didn't create the stories, they simply collected them, sanitizing them as they wrote them down, adjusting them later to their most lucrative market: children. But the stories were not initially just for children, they did not originate from one source, one country, nor have one 'meaning' or 'moral'. In fact, they seem to act more as mythical signposts, depicting our simple shared fears and reflecting shared elements of the human condition and emotions.

In Grand Guignol and in the darkest folk tales, we often do not find happy endings but perhaps a kind of justice, a catharsis or at least satisfaction in witnessing our own darkest impulses realized in a safe format. And children do love the darkest aspects of the stories, because it helps them identify their own feelings and impulses in a way healthy to their emotional development. Making the unknown known helps to diminish a fearful hold. Even the sanitized Disney films are still pretty scary. And that's why kids love them. And we do, too.

Our adaptations of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood are taken from Grimm, Perrault and even earlier versions, using the elements that seemed to work both theatrically and culturally. They may be different than you might expect... and more shocking. We aim to rediscover and present the fearful elements that can penetrate even the hearts of horror-film numbed adults. And there's snacks.