february 20. 2004 « J u s t o u t 39
TH EA TER
P
ortland theatergoers have a rare opportunity through
March 6 to see a masterwork by one of the finest farceurs of
the 20th century. The late Bntish playwright Joe O rton’s
Loot is being presented by C 0 H 0 Productions, and, while the
production leaves much to he desired, O rton’s genius does not.
Loot is O rto n ’s third play and represents a turning point in
his short career. After its premiere, the term “O rtonesque,”
meaning that which is both macabre and outrageous, entered
the theatrical lexicon. A t the height of his popularity at age
34, O rton wrote in his diary, “I have high hopes of dying in
my prime.” Just one m onth later, he was brutally murdered by
his lover of 16 years.
O rton was horn in Leicester, England, in 1933. His family
was working-class and abusive, and O rton, who attended secre
tarial school and acted in local plays, was determined to escape.
In 1951 he entered Londons Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts,
where he “lost my confidence and my virginity.” He also met
Kenneth Halliwell, who was seven years older.
Halliwell and O rton moved into a tiny N orth London flat.
Halliwell, who was living off of an inheritance at the time, taught
Orton about Greek drama and the English literary classics. The
couple wrote novels together, hut none was ever accepted for pub
lication. (Two were published posthumously in 1999.)
In 1962, before success hit, the couple were caught stealing
and defacing library fxxiks. They removed hundreds of pictures
and tacked them to their apartm ent walls, then wrote fake
blurbs on the book flaps and inserted obscene pictures. W hen
they returned the books, they’d hide out to watch the looks of
horror on the faces of library patrons as they stumbled upon the
prank. Both were sentenced to six months in prison. (Some of
the books are now on display in a local museum.)
Loot is a delightfully wicked farce that combines a robbery, a
corpse and a glass eye to create an evening of satirical laughs.
Two young thieves, Hal and Dennis, rob a bank th at’s next to
the mortuary for which Dennis drives a hearse. They bring the
“loot” to Hal’s house, where his recently deceased mother lies in
state. W hen the cops arrive, they hide the money in Mrs.
McLeavy’s coffin and stuff her in a wardrobe.
Loot takes place in a world that turns values, institutions
A fitting epigraph
Gay playwright’s outrageous macabre
on view at CoHo
by
F loyd S klaver
Nurse Fay and the boys wreak havoc in Joe O rton’s Loot through
March 6 at C oH o Productions
and beliefs upside down (many productions stand Mrs.
McLeavy on her head in the wardrobe) and where characters
contradict assumptions about their roles. (For instance, Mrs.
McLeavy’s nurse, Fay, has a track record of killing, rather than
healing, her patients.)
C
CoHo Productions, 2257 N .W . Raleigh St., presents LOOT 8 p.m.
Thursday to Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through March 6. Tickets
are $18-$20 from 503-220-2646.
oH o uses a sparse set dominated by a gold and black cas
ket. The actors try gamely but are stifled by sloppy and
unimaginative direction. (A policeman asks for the key to
The Portland Spirit
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the wardrobe, but how does he know it’s locked when he
never tries to open it?) Still, the playwright’s famous epigrams
shine through.
As w ith all O rto n ’s work, sex plays an im portant role in
Loot. Hal is sleeping w ith Dennis, who is in love w ith Fay,
who wants to marry Mr. McLeavy for his money. As one
critic noted, “In the hom y world of Joe O rto n ’s plays,
everyone lusts after everyone regardless of gender or family
relationship.”
Even with th e harsh sodomy laws of that era, O rto n ’s sex
ual appetites were voracious. His diaries included many
adventures. H e was prone to public toilets (he called them
“the last bastion of male privilege”), including one tryst with
a dwarf in Brighton and one w ith a laborer he picked up on
the way to his m other’s funeral. In fact, a public toilet in
N orth London, where O rto n regularly cruised for sex, was
preserved by th e D epartm ent of N ational Heritage in 1999 at
a cost of approxim ately $81,000.
W hile O rto n grew m ore famous (h e was writing a screen
play for the Beatles), Halliwell was becom ing little more
th an a maid to him (they had long since stopped having sex)
and growing bitter. In A ugust 1967, he com m itted a grue
some murder-suicide, beating O rto n to death w ith nine ham
mer blows to th e head and then taking his own life with 22
Nem butals.
Halliwell left a parting note stating: “If you read his diary, all
will be explained.... Especially the latter part.” But O rto n ’s diary
ended several days before the murder, and rumors abounded that
the final pages were removed, perhaps by the authorities, to pro
tect the identity of a celebrity with whom O rton was thought to
be having an affair.
W hat remains, however, is the brilliance of Joe O rto n ’s wit
and the beauty of his language. jF !
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