Hellraiser

In the 19th century, Grand Guignol terror plays used to shock people — props from the butcher shop took care of that. Although the work is tame compared to current horrorshows like Drag Me Back to Hell, restagings of Paris’ Le Théâtre du Grand Guignol plays still provide an irresistible peek into what titillated Parisians on the hunt for low-rent, scandalous, off-color theater. “Shocktoberfest!!,” the yearly tribute to the genre by our local Thrillpeddlers theater troupe, features two offerings that run through Halloween: the 1922 classic The Torture Garden by Pierre Chaine and Andre de Lorde, which takes on sex and torture in the very un-PC style of the '20s — if the plot doesn’t scandalize you, the “Orientalism” will. It also features the modern-day offering The Phantom Limb by New York playwright and frequent Shocktoberfest go-to guy Rob Keefe, which is set in a brothel populated by bloodied Civil War soldiers looking to score.
Thursdays, Fridays, 8 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 31, 11:59 p.m. Starts: Oct. 9. Continues through Nov. 20, 2009