THEATRE/San Francisco
“Welcome to the Hypnodrome”
Extended run: Through Dec. 18
Th,Fr,Sat, 8pm

Will leading lady Jill Tracy be covered in blood? Performing a lament at a nineteenth-century reed organ?

Will she be torn apart by wolves? Seduced by a mad hypnotist? Killed in a violent train crash? Locked in a tower with iron bars? Drive a man mad? Rise from the dead? All of the above?

Bay Area theatergoers are in for a glorious shock this fall in a thrilling new chapter in San Francisco underground theater; "Welcome to the Hypnodrome" revives the suspenseful, sensational and blood-spattered Grand Guignol tradition of 1920s Paris.

Jill Tracy’s evocative music and provocative style conjures the decadent spirit of the original Grand Guignol period, and influenced producer Russell Blackwood’s selection of plays.

He painstakingly searched for Charles Mere’s 1928 “L’homme nu/The Beast” to feature Tracy at the helm of an ornate nineteenth-century reed organ, as the tortured “Countess Edwige.”

To adapt the U.S. premiere of Maurice Renard’s "L’Amant de la Morte/Lover of the Dead," Blackwood enlisted prize-winning crime novelist Eddie Muller.

"Welcome to the Hypnodrome" also incorporates shenanigans inspired by horror film impresario William Castle. Theatre-goers in special "Shock Boxes" will get an additional dose of the...unexpected.

Shown/header image: Jill Tracy
Photo: JimFerreira

Find it: The Hypnodrome
575 10th Street (at Bryant)
San Francisco, CA
Get info: (415) 248-1900

Find dance/theatre events in other cities, in the DEC/JAN issue of "Arte Six."