Loot (Modern Classics)

Product Information

Bigsby, C. W. E., 1982. Joe Orton. Contemporary Writers series. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-416-31690-5 DiGaetani, John Louis, 2008. Stages of Struggle: Modern Playwrights and Their Psychological Inspirations, Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-3157-1 Brennen, Clare; "Loot review – the farce is strong with this one", The Guardian, 3 September 2017. Retrieved 9 December 2018 Gilbert, Gerard (24 May 1998). "Any face you want, except the real one". independent.co.uk . Retrieved 28 June 2023. Alec Baldwin learned from Joe Orton for awardwinning performance". le.ac.uk. 18 September 2017 . Retrieved 20 July 2019.

The play had its first Broadway production in New York at the Biltmore Theatre. [4] It opened on 18 March 1968. [4] Kenneth Cranham played Hal (as he had in the 1966 London production), James Hunter played Dennis, Liam Redmond played McLeavy, Carole Shelley played Fay, George Rose played Truscott, and Norman Barrs played Meadows. [4] It was directed by Derek Goldby and designed by William Ritmann. [4] The play was profiled in the William Goldman book The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway. Loot starts at Park Theatre, London before its run at The Watermill and is directed by Michael Fentiman, whose credits include acclaimed productions of Titus Andronicus and The Taming of The Shrew for the Royal Shakespeare Company. This decision sets off a round of increasingly strange consequences. Hal's dad and the visiting nurse (Fay), who herself is a gold-digger, are distraught by the events, but Hal and Dennis are focused on not getting caught. Their callous use of the coffin leads to a lot of comic mishaps involving mistreatment of the corpse. Fay - a nurse, visiting the home, who has been married seven times and each of her husbands has died under strange circumstancesTwo archive recordings of Orton are known to survive: a short BBC radio interview first transmitted in August 1967 and a video recording, held by the British Film Institute, of his appearance on Eamonn Andrews' ITV chat show transmitted 23 April 1967. [50] Legacy [ edit ] Strangest of all was the insistence that the body of Mrs McLeavy must not be played by an actor. Instead, a mannequin had to be wrapped up and hidden behind a screen even though part of the humour of the play relied on the body being visible on stage. The characters in this play are uncomplicated, but each reveals sides of themselves meant to show them as hypocrites (except for the "real" criminals: Hal and Dennis). Meadows, a minor character, is meant mainly to help show the corruption and basic ineptitude of the police force, but Truscott does most of the heavy lifting in that regard. At the suggestion of Halliwell's family, Peggy Ramsay asked Orton's brother Douglas if Orton and Halliwell's ashes could be mixed. Douglas agreed, "As long as nobody hears about it in Leicester." [39] The mixed ashes were scattered [40] in section 3-C of the Garden of Remembrance at Golders Green. There is no memorial. [41] Biography and film, radio, TV [ edit ]

Carlos Be wrote a play about Orton and Halliwell's last days, Noel Road 25: A Genius Like Us, first performed in 2001. [44] [45] It received its New York premiere in 2012, produced by Repertorio Español. [46] A Ceremony" by Leonie Barnett, Entertaining Mr. Sloane Programme, Ambassadors' Theatre Group, 2009.The Library's buildings remain fully open but some services are limited, including access to collection items. We're The play is an extremely dark farce which satirises the Roman Catholic Church, social attitudes to death, and the integrity of the police force and was Orton's third major production. 'Loot' follows the fortunes of two young thieves, Hal and Dennis. Together they rob the bank next to the funeral parlour where Dennis works and return to Hal's home to hide the money. Hal's mother has just died and the money is hidden in her coffin while her body keeps on appearing around the house. Upon the arrival of Inspector Truscott the plot turns topsy turvy as Hal and Dennis try to keep him off their trail. Lines where Hal speaks to Dennis of “denying ourselves” and “taking my breath away” and the phrase the “wreaths are blown to buggery”, a reference to the flowers at the funeral of Hal’s mother, were all cut. Albert Finney directed a production at the Royal Court Theatre as part of its Joe Orton Festival. [3] This production opened on 3 June 1975. [3] Arthur O'Sullivan played McLeavy, Jill Bennett played Fay, David Troughton played Hal, James Aubrey played Dennis, Philip Stone played Truscott, and Michael O'Hagan played Meadows. [3] It was designed by Douglas Heap, with costumes by Harriet Geddes. [3] In March 1967, Orton and Halliwell had intended another extended holiday in Libya, but they returned home after one day because the only hotel accommodation they could find was a boat that had been converted into a hotel/nightclub.

is reviewed between 08.30 to 16.30 Monday to Friday. We're experiencing a high volume of enquiries so it may take us The pinnacle of satire, the darkly comic tale unfolds like a Coen Brothers remake of 'Fawlty Towers'. The audience was whooping, cheering, whistling & clapping like possessed seals…at the interval!"★★★★★ EntertainmentFocus Joe Orton was born on 1 January 1933 at Causeway Lane Maternity Hospital, Leicester, to William Arthur Orton and Elsie Mary Orton (née Bentley). William worked for Leicester County Borough Council as a gardener and Elsie worked in the local footwear industry until tuberculosis cost her a lung. At the time of Joe's birth, William and Mary were living with William's family at 261 Avenue Road Extension in Clarendon Park, Leicester. Joe's younger brother, Douglas, was born in 1935. That year, the Ortons moved to 9 Fayrhurst Road on the Saffron Lane Estate, a council estate. Orton's younger sisters, Marilyn and Leonie, were born in 1939 and 1944, respectively. [7] After graduating, both Orton and Halliwell went into regional repertory work: Orton spent four months in Ipswich as an assistant stage manager; Halliwell in Llandudno, Wales. Both returned to London and began to write together. They collaborated on a number of unpublished novels (often imitating Ronald Firbank) with no success at gaining publication. The rejection of their great hope, The Last Days of Sodom, in 1957 led them to solo works. [9] Orton wrote his last novel, The Vision of Gombold Proval (posthumously published as Head to Toe), in 1959. He later drew on these manuscripts for ideas; many show glimpses of his stage-play style.

Calvin Demba

The Erpingham Camp, Orton's take on The Bacchae, written through mid-1965 and offered to Associated-Rediffusion in October of that year, was broadcast on 27 June 1966 as the "pride" segment in their series Seven Deadly Sins. [27] The Good and Faithful Servant was a transitional work for Orton. A one-act television play, it was completed by June 1964 but first broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion on 6 April 1967, representing "faith" in the series Seven Deadly Virtues. [28] [29] Loot is a play written by British playwright Joe Orton, and is meant to satirize conventional society, especially the Catholic Church and police forces. Life and Work: 'Because We were Queers': 1 OF 2". Joe Orton Online. 28 April 1962 . Retrieved 30 March 2012.

Loot is a two-act play by British writer and playwright Joe Orton. The play features a surreal narrative style that is meant to criticize the middle-class British society of the time (mid-20th century). The thesis of the play is the hypocrisy of society and their institutions and how the masses are duped by these institutions that they blindly follow. Orton and his lover were arrested for defacing books at a library. They modified selected contents of books to depict erotic acts—mostly from a homosexual perspective. Wiegand, Chris; "How to play dead: the corpse’s view of Joe Orton’s Loot", The Guardian, 7 September 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2018 Over the next ten months, he revised The Ruffian on the Stair and The Erpingham Camp for the stage as a double called Crimes of Passion, wrote Funeral Games, the screenplay Up Against It for the Beatles, and his final full-length play, What the Butler Saw. Shepherd, Simon, 1989. Because We're Queers: The Life and Crimes of Joe Orton and Kenneth Haliwell, London: Gay Men's Press: 1989: ISBN 978-0-85449-090-5

Ian Redford

Orton was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium, his maroon cloth-draped coffin being brought into the west chapel to a recording of The Beatles song " A Day in the Life". [37] Harold Pinter read the eulogy, concluding with "He was a bloody marvellous writer." Orton's agent Peggy Ramsay described Orton's relatives as "the little people in Leicester", [38] leaving a cold, nondescript note and bouquet at the funeral on their behalf. Now I have never particularly liked LOOT as a play or as a film, preferring Entertaining Mr Sloane, Berly Reid's performance being worth the price of admission alone, but to compare it to W.A.B.'s is like comparing Hamlet to GHOST because of the presence of a spook in them. But it is easily a far superior film, yes it is a little creaky and the farce is shoe horned in but then that was Orton's style. Loot was Orton's third major production, following Entertaining Mr Sloane and the television play The Good and Faithful Servant. Playing with the conventions of popular farce, Orton creates a hectic world and examines English attitudes and perceptions in the mid-twentieth century. The play won several awards in its London run and has had many revivals.