Joe Orton

Joe Orton (January 1, 1933, Leicester, England - August 9, 1967, Islington, London) was a satirical modern playwright. In a short but brilliant career from 1964 until his death he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies. Ortonesque became a recognized term for "outrageously macabre".

Orton as playwright

In the early 1960s Orton began to write plays. He wrote his last novel in 1961 (Head to Toe) and following the praise for a 1962 reject he finally had a work accepted. In 1963 the BBC paid £65 for the radio play The Boy Hairdresser, it was broadcast on August 31, 1964 as The Ruffian on the Stair. It was substantially rewritten for the stage in 1966.

Related Topics:
1960s - Write plays - Head to Toe - BBC - The Boy Hairdresser - The Ruffian on the Stair

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Orton revelled in his achievement and poured out new works. He had completed Entertaining Mr Sloane by the time The Ruffian on the Stair was broadcast, he sent a copy to the theatre agent Peggy Ramsay in December 1963. She was quick to appreciate its qualities and set it to Michael Codron of the New Arts Theatre, who took up the play for an April/May run in January 1964. The play premiered on May 6, 1964, reviews ranged from praise to outrage. Certain influential theatre figures such as Sir Terence Rattigan ensured his work was performed, there was a clear expectation of good things to come. Sloane lost money in its three week run but Rattigan invested £3,000 and the play transferred to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End at the end of June and to Queen's Theatre in October. Sloane tied for first in the Variety Critics' Poll for best new play and Orton came second for most promising playwright. Sloane was being performed in New York (directed by Alan Schneider, it did very poorly), Spain, Israel and Australia within a year as well as being made into a film and a television play.

Related Topics:
Entertaining Mr Sloane - Peggy Ramsay - Michael Codron - New Arts Theatre - Terence Rattigan - Wyndham's Theatre - West End - Queen's Theatre - Variety - New York - Alan Schneider - Spain - Israel - Australia

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The chronology of Orton's works becomes a little confusing here, as his next major success, Loot, was written later but performed earlier than the two television plays, The Good and Faithful Servant and The Erpingham Camp. Hence material that seems less Ortonesque, a backwards step in development and skill, is misleadingly positioned.

Related Topics:
Loot - The Good and Faithful Servant - The Erpingham Camp

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Orton's next performed work was Loot. The first draft was written between June and October 1964 and entitled Funeral Games, a tile Orton would drop for Halliwell's suggestion but would later reuse. A wild parody of detective fiction, adding the blackest farce and jabs at established ideas on death, the police, religion and justice. Orton offered the play to Codron in October 1964 and it underwent sweeping rewrites before it was judged fit for the West End - for example Inspector Truscott has a mere eight lines in the initial first act. Codron had manoevred Orton into meeting his colleague Kenneth Williams in August 1964, they were "immediately sympatico." Orton reworked Loot with Williams in mind for Truscott, his other inspiration for the role was DS Harold Challenor - the utter incompatibility of these two sources was lost to Orton at first.

Related Topics:
Detective fiction - Kenneth Williams - Harold Challenor

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With the success of Sloane evident, Loot was hurried into pre-production, despite the obvious flaws. Rehersals began in January 1965 with a six-week tour culminating in a West End debut planned. The play opened in Cambridge on February 1 to disasterous and scathing reviews, and not for the content but for the plot, the acting, the bright white set, the entire quality of the piece. Orton, at odds with director Peter Wood over the plot (or lack of same), still tore at the play producing 133 pages of new material to replace or add to the original ninety. The cast were demoralized in rehearsal and uneven and tentative on stage, they were however impressed with Orton's energy and efforts. The play staggered on to more poor reviews in Brighton, Oxford, Bournemouth, Manchester, and finally Wimbledon in mid-March. "Loot was a dead horse, but it continued to be flogged." Orton retired from the fray for a promiscuous, hashish-filled, eighty-day holiday in Tangier, Morocco.

Related Topics:
Pre-production - Peter Wood - Hashish - Tangier - Morocco

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In January 1966 Loot was revived, with Oscar Lewenstein taking up an option. Before his production it had a short run (April 11-23) at the University Theatre, Manchester. Orton's growing experience led him to cut over six-hundred lines, raising the tempo and improving the characters' interactions. Directed by Braham Murray, with a more sympathetic and less abstract set, the tuned play garnered more favourable reviews. Lewenstein was still a little cool and put the London production in a "sort of Off-West End theatre," the Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre, under the direction of the clever and thrusting Charles Marowitz. Orton continued his habit of clashing with directors with Marowitz, but the addition cuts they agreed improved the play further. The London premiere was September 27, 1966, the reviews produced "stunned delight" in Orton. Loot moved to the Criterion Theatre in November, raising Orton's confidence to new heights, "a weird, thrilling, slightly unnerving state of grace," while he was in the middle of writing What the Butler Saw.

Related Topics:
1966 - Oscar Lewenstein - University Theatre - Braham Murray - Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre - Charles Marowitz - Criterion Theatre - What the Butler Saw

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Loot went on to win several awards - which had a pleasing effect on the box office - and firmly established Orton's fame. He sold the film rights for £25,000 although he was certain it would flop - it did and Loot on Broadway repeated the failure of Sloane. Orton was still on an absolute high and in the next ten months 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 completing What the Butler Saw.

Related Topics:
Film rights - Broadway - Crimes of Passion - Funeral Games - Up Against It - The Beatles

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The Good and Faithful Servant is a play of transition for Orton. A one-act television play it was first broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion on April 6, 1967, but it was completely written by June 1964. With its low-key bitterness and regret it is tame and naturalistic compared to the joyful macabre heights of his later modern farces, including that which premiered earlier.

Related Topics:
The Good and Faithful Servant - Television play - Associated-Rediffusion

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The Erpingham Camp, Orton's take on The Bacchae, written through mid-1965 and offered to Rediffusion in October of that year. It was broadcast on June 27, 1966.

Related Topics:
The Erpingham Camp - The Bacchae

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Funeral Games is the real linking work between Loot and What the Butler Saw. It was written and four times re-written in July-November, 1966. It was created for a Yorkshire Television series, The Seven Deadly Virtues, Orton's play dealt with charity - especially Christian charity - in a mad confusion of adultery and murder.

Related Topics:
Funeral Games - Yorkshire Television

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In March 1967 Orton and Halliwell had intended another extended holiday in North Africa, Libya on this occasion. The relationship between them had deteriorated so far that they returned home after barely a day. Orton was working hard, energised and happy; Halliwell was increasingly depressed, argumentative and plagued with mystery ailments.

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