#grinpayne tgm

[southwarkfair]

sketches for a very vague 1960s au

#barkilphedro #the grinning man #tgm musical #the man who laughs #duchess josiana #grinpayne #dea

[purpleweredragon]

[Description: A stylised digital illustration of Grinpayne from The Grinning Man, with thick, bold lines. He is a white-passing man with dark curly hair and a large bloody bandage covering his mouth and chin.

Grinpayne crouches on a purple-y grey plain background, one hand raised as if to almost cover his face, the other hand lower and limp like "raptor-hands" posture.

End ID]

Before Disability Pride Month ends, here's Bristol's Poorest Little Meow Meow

#the grinning man #grinpayne #disability pride month #disabled character #disabled characters #gwynplaine trelaw #tgm #musicals #musical theatre #fanart #my art #blood #blood trigger warning

[lesbiansagainsttheatre]

grinpayne and dea are like dykes to me

#dear diary #tgm liveblog #its real because i played a lesbian!grinpayne in a pathfinder campaign

[unfried-mouth-wheat]

I finally drew them again

[Image ID: Two traditional sketches of Dea and Gwynplaine from The Grinning Man. Dea has short cut hair, unfocused eyes, and a shawl around her shoulders. Gwynplaine has loose curls, a loose poets shirt, and a leather vest. His mouth is cut to resemble a smile, and is bleeding. Both character’s eyes are tired and heavy set. End ID]

#Been a while dhdhdhhx #facial trauma tw #blood tw #the grinning man #grinpayne #gwynplaine #dea tgm #tgm #art #image id #its been a while since I’ve written one and I’m so sorry for that

[ta-divchyna]

Praise the Grinning Man!

My TGM 2nd Anniversary

#the grinning man #grinpayne #dea #josiana tgm #david dirry-moir #barkilphedro #louis maskell #audrey brisson #julian bleach #stuart neal #ewan black #sean kingsley #love this so much #puppets #facial trauma

[burning--heart]

The Grinning Man is Not a Horror Show

this post brought to you by: my own personal experience trying to show this musical to people (which i have already talked about briefly) and also this post by castledock:

the mainstream media’s perception of LHQR is almost always “well I haven’t watched or read it but this guy looks scary so it must be a very disturbing and scary book/movie” and every time I go outside of my little circle of LHQR Appreciators it’s like being slapped in the face by Ableism

i’m spinning this off into my own post because the essay got Long and also it’s definitely about tgm and not lhqr. strap in y’all.

like, ok. you see the pictures online. the protagonist has a bloody bandage on his face, the lighting is moody, and the puppets are creepy i guess (but they are so charming once you see them in motion)…

i’ll be focusing on flesh-and-blood adult grinpayne and his face. does it cause him a lot of grief? yes. is it central to the show? absolutely. but are you meant to be scared or disturbed by it? no. if you were, then yeah. this would be a horror show, and a bitingly ableist one at that. but it’s not.

there is one single moment where we are made to see grinpayne’s face as horrifying, and even then it's... well. it’s not about his smile being grotesque. not really.

it happens when his frustration at being kept as a spectacle because of his face reaches a tipping point. he bites back. "i'm the stuff of your nightmares," he says, "i am the freak show! watch me smile!" it's not an empowering moment. he is gutting himself for his audience.

He removes his bandages and reveals his jaw - a huge nightmarish bloody grin. Horribly unhealed. Red. Raw. Glistening. It's there, and then it's gone. “Laughter" riff crashes in and the world tilts.

Above is the stage direction from the script. Note that the “Laughter” motif is identified by name.

We can see how this was executed onstage in Bristol: The reveal is accompanied by sickly green strobe light, Louis Maskell as Grinpayne snaps his head to the side, there's a brief blackout, we are jumpscared by a giant grinpayne puppet head in the same green strobe, blackout again, then it’s on to the characters' reactions.

It sounds horror on paper. it looks very horror in Bristol. and yet the characters react as though they've just seen heaven. what's up with that?

here lies one of the biggest challenges the grinning man has: its empathetic theme gets easily muddied by the reactions the other characters have to grinpayne. generally, when experiencing a story, we look to the characters within it for cues on how we should feel about its topics, and they guide us through it. this is especially true of media aimed at children. the grinning man is... not like that. the royals and the people of the fair see his face and they are instantly enlightened! with sudden clarity, you're him, and he is you!

the audience doesn’t get it. 

but i don't think we're supposed to.

Song lyrics like ‘you realise that you are him and he is you’ explain to us Grinpayne’s effect on his audiences, but we are never shown that experience nor are we invited to feel that experience ourselves. (Brendan Macdonald, Exeunt)

this reviewer was close, very close, but has jumped to conclusions and ended up shutting the door on the idea that makes the musical make sense. its true that we are told how the other characters see grinpayne, and we don't get to experience that for ourselves. but the thing is, while we are told one thing, we are actually being shown something entirely different.

characters in his audience look at grinpayne and we are told they have an earth-shattering revelation. we hear them explain it multiple times. despite this, their reaction is not what we feel. this is the part that's unintuitive.

here’s where we circle back to the face reveal. the dramatic imagery clashes with what the fictional audience is seeing and feeling. this is because we, the non-fictional audience, are not supposed to be putting ourselves in their shoes at all. the character we’re anchored to is grinpayne. and to him, this is not a triumph of self-discovery. the horror isn’t in his appearance, it’s in how people treat him because of it.

and when it comes to the characters’ revelations, it’s not really about grinpayne anyway. it’s about themselves and what they project onto him, whatever that is. grinpayne is a symbol to almost everyone, whether they see him as a gruesome face, a lord, or a god. they don't understand him when they look at his face.

the audience of the grinning man, unlike the characters within it, are provided the opportunity to connect with grinpayne on a deeper level. we get to dive into his head like nobody else. this is why “Labyrinth” is a big deal (this is also why them changing over half the lyrics to this song at the transfer is a big deal). this is why dea’s love for him is a big deal: she sees him for who he is, and has from the start.

we also get to see the “real” grinpayne (and even love him for who he is), but unlike the characters’ sudden (and shallow) enlightenment, our understanding of grinpayne is gradual, but truer because of it. it builds slowly and perhaps unnoticed throughout the show until you’re fully immersed; it’s something that you feel, not think. though, if i had to pick a moment, personally, it would be “when they are gazing at my grin / what is it that they see within?” from “Labyrinth” because that line knocks me on my ass to this day.

and. surprise! this deeper understanding is also why i think this show is a musical and not a straight play. nothing has the emotional capacity that music does. we aren’t just told the way grinpayne feels; his songs allow us to feel with him in a way that spoken word never could. that’s how we connect.

at the end of the day, this guy still has a bloody face. and some people are going to see this and assume that tgm is horror. but hopefully if they watched it they’d change their minds, because the grinning man shows us the most (and only truly) disturbing thing about grinpayne’s injury is the cruelty and misunderstanding he faces at the hands of a miserable world where “laughter is the best medicine.” and “I Am the Freak Show” may contain the moment with the strongest “horror” visuals in the show, at least in the original production, but it’s actually a crucial example of why tgm itself is not a horror show itself.

#the grinning man #grinpayne #burning thoughts #this is over 1k words btw #thanks for reading if you made it this far #also i specify bristol in this post not to differentiate it from london but to differentiate it from the script #aka everything brought onstage that is not present in the text. this is not a version differences post #also i didn’t want to mention it in the post since i don’t feel like digging for the source and it’s not super relevant to my point #but louis maskell Has said that “i am the freak show” is the most difficult and emotionally taxing part of the show for him to perform. #and no fucking wonder honestly. have you seen this guy’s energy during this number? it’s unbelievable. #peace and love. hope i made sense. goodnight <3

[gilmores-glorious-blog]

literally no one asked for this but i ended up on the grinning man tag again for some reason (the reason is that there’s a new production of it happening in australia!!) and i saw a bunch of people talking about this so i guess i just wanted to apologize for lumping tgm in as a horror musical in this post i made a while back,, i was not intending for that to come across as ableist in any way, shape, or form, and i was using the term “horror” pretty lightly (i have a hard time considering rocky horror to genuinely be horror given the everything about it)… my use of the word was from a purely aesthetic standpoint, which i stand by… from how visually dark the show is to the vaugely uncanny valley puppets to the sound of the music at certain points (see: the theremin intro to labyrinth) to the image of a clown (something stereotypical in the horror genre) scarring a young child’s face with a scythe, this show could be considered horror. but any horror aspects i see in the show do not have to do with grinpayne and his scar, and instead come from the general tone of the show. also, i often lump it in with other horror musicals i like such as jekyll & hyde and sweeney todd simply because of aesthetic similarities and the fact that they’re all based on books from the 1840s-1880s. i guess maybe dark would be a better word than horror to describe these shows,, bc i do think tgm is definitely dark (see again: clown. carving a child’s face open. with a scythe.) anyways this is long and rambling i just wanted to get my thoughts out there. i love this musical forever and always <33

#i’m so sorry about this i promise i’ll shut up and go to sleep now #the grinning man #tgm #eli.posts

[birchlogz]

rewatched TGM! still one of the best musicals i've ever seen

(click for better quality)

#the grinning man #gwynplaine trelaw #grinpayne tgm #grinpayne trelaw #josiana tgm #dea the grinning man #dea tgm #tgm? ok i will try it.... bla bla bla i cazy now #my doodlez

[ratcarney]

compilation of tgm moments that just fucking take me out

#g O D #this musical is my life now. no takebacks #jo.posts #jo.vid #video #the grinning man #the grinning man musical #gwynplaine trelaw #grinpayne tgm #dea tgm #ref #fav #theatre #tgm musical #musical theatre

[southwarkfair]

grinpayne at the end of tgm

[hamletteprinceofdenmark]

Grinpayne and Dea in a New World 

A short badass blind girl with a penchant for justice and a lanky man with a very noticable facial disfigurement and anger management issues walk into a bar. 

Now was I talking about Dea and Grinpayne or Toph and Zuko? 

Descripton:

Page 1: Toph from Avatar the Last Airbender stands on the left and Dea from The Grinning Man stands on the right. Both have speech bubbles above their heads. The speech bubbles are colour coded. Toph’s is green and Dea’s is purple.

Toph: …

Dea: … so actually our adoptive father, who turned out to be my biological father, was an unwilling accomplice in permanently disfiguring my boyfriend’s face. Mojo – that’s the wolf – found us nearly dying of cold in the snow and Ursus raised us as his own, I think maybe as some sort of atonement? But he also made us part of a travelling show telling the story of what happened (his version anyway, which you know), profitting off Grinpayne’s face, and drugging him the entire time so he couldn’t remember the truth. He can remember it now because he stopped taking Crimson Lethe – that was the drug – but yeah, all this happened very recently.

 Page 2: Speech bubbles descend down an otherwise blank page, relaying the continuing conversation. As before, the bubbles are colour coded, with Toph’s being green and Dea’s purple. Toph’s speech bubble’s are on the left, and Dea’s on the right, corresponding to their positions on the previous page.

Toph: You know, I was going to talk about me, but that is so fucked up.

Dea: Which part?

Toph: Literally all of it. Are you okay?

Dea: …

Toph: Do you wanna go punch some rocks?

Dea: Yeah.

 Page 3:

A banner headline states: MEANWHILE

New speech bubbles descend, this time Grinpayne from The Grinning Man and Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender are speaking, although we do not see them. The speech bubbles once again descend down a white background. Grinpayne’s speech bubbles are coloured blue, Zuko’s are coloured red. Grinpayne’s speech bubbles are on the left and Zuko’s are on the right.

Grinpayne: This is amazing.

Zuko: I know right?

Grinpayne: I don’t think I’ve ever felt more relaxed in my life …

 Page 4: The next panel reveals Grinpayne and Zuko, on the left and right respectively, as they relax, floating fully clothed in the turtleduck pond. Three turtleducks swim around their heads, as the two men float with their eyes closed.

 This peace is interupted as the next panel shows the word “CRASH” written in big bold letters, surrounded by a jagged red shape, with a yellow jagged shape indicated underneath for emphasis.

 Page 5: The next panel is split down the middle by a jagged blue line, one side showing Grinpayne’s left eye, very brown, and the other showing Zuko’s right eye, golden, and surrounded by scarred tissue. Grinpayne’s eye looks wide and surprised. Zuko’s looks angry.

The next panel once again shows descending speech bubbles against a white background, all colour coded to show who is speaking. Once again, Toph’s are green, Dea’s are purple, Grinpayne’s are blue, and Zuko’s are red. Toph and Dea’s speech bubbles are on the left, and Grinpayne and Zuko’s speech bubbles are on the right.

Zuko: TOPH!

Toph: Nothing broke!

Dea: Much!

Toph: Tattle tale …

Grinpayne: Dear God, what a mess!

Zuko: I can’t believe you two …  

END DESCRIPTION 

#tgm #the grinning man #atla #avatar the last airbender #toph beifong #dea tgm #grinpayne tgm #grinpayne #gwynplaine #zuko #my art #the answer is of course Sike it’s both 😉 #i have not drawn in so long ha ha ha ... ha 😅 #pls interact i crave engagement

[armania-mothe]

Día 6.- Ship Canon: Grinpayne x Dea de The Grinning Man

#Theatretober #Theatretober 2020 #fan art #digital art #The Grinning Man #The Grinning Man Musical #Grinpayne #Dea #artober #artober 2020 #Drawtober #Drawtober 2020 #artist on tumblr #armania mothe #Gwynplaine Trelaw #Dea TGM #Grinpayne TGM #Theatre #Musical #Musical Theatre

[midnighttaylors]

@projectbway event 02 : adaptations — the grinning man

— whose is this mask i’m wearing? whose is this past i’m carrying?

#projectbway #pbblue #the grinning man #musicaltheatreedit #theatreedit #musicalgifs #louis maskell #grinpayne tgm #usercaitlyn #usercossette #maya.edit

[ambientoast]

CW: slight gore, blood

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Three versions because I still cannot decide which I like more for some reason-

#the grinning man #the man who laughs #grinpayne tgm #gwynplaine trelaw #tgm musical #tgm #i'm still waiting for them to put the album on youtube or spotify or something #please #i don't have the money to buy it- #ahhh #oh well #Labyrinth is a really good song #slight gore cw

[kichuguu]

Your kiss of life has opened my eyes

The place where my heart breaks, you have mended

Your gift of love has given me life

My sorrow and heartache, you have melted

I love you

I love you

#art #digital aritst #digital art #pairing #draw #illustration #drawing #grinpayne tgm #dea tgm #tgm #tgm musical #the grinning man #grinpayne #gwynplaine trelaw

[burning--heart]

i should really touch up/make a sequel to my tgm is not a horror show post with expanded thoughts on the giant head, because i think it’s pretty significant that they got rid of it in london (presumably—we know it wasn’t there in iatfs, and it probably wasn’t in the smiling song either because they added lines for him to sing in there). plus him not revealing his face during a scar is born!.

i don’t think it’s unreasonable to read mr. big head as a manifestation of the monster that grinpayne is made to feel that he is. that’s my first impression. it only pops up when he’s at the center of spectacle because of his face. interestingly, it doesn’t appear during a scar is born! or labyrinth.

i’m not sure why it’s absent in asib! but present in the smiling song, since those two are very similar. the biggest difference that comes to mind is that grinpayne is physically present for asib! but he…isn’t really for the smiling song. the smiling song takes place outside of realistic time and space, and so grinpayne’s presence is a little more abstract, a little more symbolic, hence the head.

(another interesting thing to note about these two songs is that grinpayne gets lyrics added in both cases, and his face reveal removed. idk what to do with that yet but it is something)

labyrinth is quite fun for smiles as a visual motif. i think it’s an incredibly clever bit of visual storytelling that although grinpayne is singing about the ways that his face is haunting him, it’s not his face, his mask, that’s doing the haunting onstage. it’s the imitation of his smile that his fan club wears. and that says a lot about what’s actually eating at him, and gives us insight into why they changed the lyrics of this song so drastically for london (i’ll finish writing this post eventually. it’s in my drafts).

finding my way back to my original point, mr. big head is definitely a statement piece. it’s larger than life and more battered than even the smile prosthetic. grinpayne never speaks with it on, so it doesn’t have a voice. i feel confident in speculating about its absence in london’s smiling song for that reason. it seems like they made a solid pivot away from this symbol of grinpayne as voiceless face, and that makes for a show with a different tone.

#the grinning man #burning thoughts #version differences #grinpayne #btw they also added lines for him in the give me back my mother reprise. but that doesn’t have much to do with the head #^ the most heartbreaking lines in the entire show also. to me. i don’t think i ever wrote up a thing about that either