The Work... from 'malicious damage' to 83 library books to his 7 plays as collected in the Eyre Methuen volume (can discuss these as text form or performance).One obviously cannot entirely leave out discussion of The Man, naturally...
I have so far read John Lahr's introduction and "The Ruffian on the Stair" (1964), which is like Pinter with some elements of farce and grand guignol particularly with the ending. Far from the 'comedy of menace', yet it uses similarly game-playing inter-character duelling to Pinter. With Pinter you rarely if ever had the threat of violence fully materialise, here it is amply portrayed in the comic book vein.Very curious play, and I sense not all that typical of Orton's overall work; the fascination with sex underneath an initial seeming-normality seems to be there, though how is that distinct from Pinter's early-60s plays, "The Lover" or "The Collection"? Admittedly, "Ruffian..." is said to be a minor play, but one can see certain tendencies.
Lahr makes a fine case for his importance, particularly singling out "Loot" and "What The Butler Saw" as his greatest triumphs... He clearly is, along with Tynan and such figures, a key player in the opening-up of British culture in the '60s. But how does his work linger today...? Is it more than, or bound within, the immense socio-political-cultural context of 1964-67?
― Tom May (Tom May), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 20:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― the pomefox, Wednesday, 2 June 2004 12:20 (nineteen years ago) link
However, a friend of mine LOOVES him so what do I know?
― PeanutDuck (PeanutDuck), Thursday, 3 June 2004 00:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― erik, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 12:14 (nineteen years ago) link
The defaced flyleaf of 'Clouds of Witness' by Dorothy L Sayers.
http://www.joeorton.org/Images/Islington/CloudsofWitness.jpg
― jed_, Friday, 3 July 2009 16:10 (fourteen years ago) link
"and have a good shit while you are reading!"
― jed_, Friday, 3 July 2009 16:11 (fourteen years ago) link
I had always assumed the defacing consisted of a few srawled swear words. That really took some effort!
― Great Expectorations (James Morrison), Saturday, 4 July 2009 02:25 (fourteen years ago) link
You're effing me! I looked this thread up yesterday and considered bumping it because I just finished Up Against It.
― bamcquern, Sunday, 5 July 2009 02:12 (fourteen years ago) link
(His diaries have some pictures of the defacements, by the way.)
― bamcquern, Sunday, 5 July 2009 02:13 (fourteen years ago) link
pretty sure i'd seen that quoted before: in prick up your ears, maybe? (book, not film.) (wasn't halliwell more responsible for them, anyway?}
― thomp, Sunday, 5 July 2009 02:24 (fourteen years ago) link
"a bit too contrived for me. Umm....I can't analyze it well...but it is dated as a play in that contrived style of comedy where the play relies on action and little on true character, nothing is real"
right, yes, ok
― thomp, Sunday, 5 July 2009 02:25 (fourteen years ago) link
Wasn't there a movie about him? Lahr was involved, I think. It was good.
Ah:
Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 film about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the book by John Lahr. The film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr and Vanessa Redgrave as Margaret "Peggy" Ramsay.
The film was directed by Stephen Frears.
It would have been quite a feat to have turned out badly.
― Beth Parker, Sunday, 5 July 2009 14:10 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh yes, already discussed upthread, duh.
I would rewatch that.
Haven't seen any Orton work, though.
― Beth Parker, Sunday, 5 July 2009 14:12 (fourteen years ago) link
But you can read the complete plays in a week or less and it will be worth it.
― bamcquern, Sunday, 5 July 2009 18:00 (fourteen years ago) link
thomp, yes, it was catching a bit of that "defacement" while watching prick up your ears that made me revive the thread. i'd just caught part of it on film4. it's a pretty decent film.
― jed_, Monday, 6 July 2009 12:18 (fourteen years ago) link
I have bought the complete works with one click.
― Beth Parker, Monday, 6 July 2009 13:55 (fourteen years ago) link
50 years gone
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-40511985?SThisFB
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 August 2017 16:27 (six years ago) link