Turning his head left and then right, Gary Dennis admires his appearance in the large makeup mirror backstage at Le Chat Noir. Pressing gingerly around the base of one eye, he grimaces as trickles of blood begin to seep down his cheek.

Looking over his shoulder, his own face swaddled in bandages, Krys Bailey smiles.

"That is awesome."

Both men are performing in the theater's evening of Grand Guignol performances, which runs Friday through Halloween.

The stage equivalent of a horror film, Grand Guignol is a French theatrical tradition that celebrates drama and dismemberment. The original plays were produced at the Grand Guignol Theatre in Paris from 1897 to 1962. Although the theater did not program the gruesome thrillers exclusively, the blood-soaked spectacles were its calling card. Mr. Bailey, a partner at Le Chat Noir, said Grand Guignol is perfect fare for Halloween.

"We kicked around the idea of a haunted house but decided that didn't lend itself to good theater," he said. "I mean, you stumble around in the dark for 10 minutes and then get chased out by a fat redneck with an empty chainsaw. You might get startled once or twice, but it doesn't stick with you."

Grand Guignol plays better suited the ethos of Le Chat Noir, Mr. Bailey said.

Although the shows are gruesome, so much so that he briefly considered setting up a "splatter zone," they are also precursors to many popular culture archetypes. Black comedy and horror movies trace their roots back to Grand Guignol.

Mr. Bailey said it's a theatrical style that also works well in a small space such as Le Chat Noir.

"The original Grand Guignol theater was a very intimate space," he said. "It only had 150 seats. One of the patrons joked that you could rest your feet on the stage. Well, that's actually the case here."

Mr. Bailey's background is in technical theater, and he admitted that the challenges of Grand Guignol attracted him to the project. He is handling most of the physical effects for the shows, but said he won't take it as far as the original theater.

"They were always very real," he said with a laugh. "They visited butcher shops, actually threw real body parts on the stage. When they tossed an eye on the stage, it was probably a real eye. Our's won't be."

Mr. Dennis, who is also directing one of the three short plays being staged, said he was attracted to the idea of participating in a performance where special effects play such an important role.

"That's the cool part," he said. "It's what sells the whole thing."

Le Chat Noir had planned to open the show last weekend but the technical aspects proved more demanding than expected and required extra time to tune.

Mr. Bailey said what makes Grand Guignol work is great acting and gratuitous gore.