Joe Orton

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• [Deleted User] Posts: 4,182

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  14/03/13 - 04:23 #2

  What the Butler Saw is classic Orton.
  
  If you're interested in Orton, the biography Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr is a really interesting read.

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• [Deleted User] Posts: 4,182

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  14/03/13 - 04:25 #3

  Forgot to say, Entertaining Mr Sloane is really good too.

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• 21stCenturyBoy Posts: 44,506

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  14/03/13 - 04:55 #4

  Thanks for the recommendations- What The Butler Saw sounds particularly good.
  
  Will also take a look at the biography.

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• Hogzilla Posts: 24,116

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  14/03/13 - 19:30 #5

  21stCenturyBoy wrote: »

  Read Loot a while ago (and absolutely loved it), and always intended to read a few more of his plays.
  
  Anyone have any recommendations/ general thoughts on Joe Orton?

  
  Read John Lahr's 'Prick Up Your Ears' and you will gather from that, what to read next! It's one of the best biographies ever written, I think.

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• [Deleted User] Posts: 4,138

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  14/03/13 - 22:48 #6

  you could try the films of Loot and Entertaining Mr Sloane. They're groovy Swinging 60s type films, which you may find irritating. Harry Andrews is great though in EMS

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• stud u like Posts: 42,100

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  14/03/13 - 22:56 #7

  "Because We're Queers: the Life and Crimes of Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton" by Simon Shepherd is a good book to read.
  
  I have seen "Loot" and "Entertaining Mr Sloane" on stage
  
  I have seen "What The Butler Saw" on television. It is my favourite and rather annoyingly has not been put on DVD.
  
  I bought "Fred And Madge" ages ago. I found "Head To Toe" in a charity shop last week.

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• TelevisionUser Posts: 41,416

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  14/03/13 - 22:57 #8

  lesleyanne wrote: »

  What the Butler Saw is classic Orton.
  
  If you're interested in Orton, the biography Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr is a really interesting read.

  
  In addition, there are these two websites here
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Orton
  http://www.joeorton.org/Pages/Joe_Orton_Life14.html
  
  plus it's possible to buy his diaries now and copies of his other works (see http://www.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk/en/Books/Paperback/Joe-Orton/Orton-Complete-Plays-Entertaining-Mr-Sloane-Loot-What-the-Butler-Ruffian-Erpingham-Camp-Funeral-Games-Good-and-Faithful-Servant/product.html?product=E10674344&utm_medium=basefeed&utm_source=google). It's unfortunate to say the least that his creative life was cut short by his senseless murder by his partner.

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• [Deleted User] Posts: 385

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  15/03/13 - 18:58 #9

  I did my dissertation on Joe Orton. Great writer. His diaries are very illuminating! I saw wtbs on stage, loved it. He lived an odd life, got up at dawn and bed at dusk to not use any electric. He was good friends with Kenneth Williams. Yes his lover was jealous of Orton and his success and if I'm right, bludgeoned him to death with a hammer? Charming. X

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• Hogzilla Posts: 24,116

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  16/03/13 - 05:07 #10

  Laurel1001 wrote: »

  I did my dissertation on Joe Orton. Great writer. His diaries are very illuminating! I saw wtbs on stage, loved it. He lived an odd life, got up at dawn and bed at dusk to not use any electric. He was good friends with Kenneth Williams. Yes his lover was jealous of Orton and his success and if I'm right, bludgeoned him to death with a hammer? Charming. X

  
  Orton's death is one of the first news stories I remember. We were on holiday and I heard it on the radio. Something about it captured my imagination, although I was only a kid.

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• dollylovesshoes Posts: 14,531

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  16/03/13 - 16:11 #11

  Joe Orton and his partner defaced a few library books at the Islington Library, I believe they are on show.
  
  https://www.martineve.com/2012/01/14/joe-ortons-defaced-books-at-the-islington-museum/

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• gboy Posts: 4,989

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  21/03/13 - 18:31 #12

  The Orton Diaries are well worth a read - like the Kenneth Williams Diaries only MUCH more explicit!
  
  They offer a fascinating insight into life in the London theatre scene in the 1960s (as well as the London cottaging scene - not to mention Morocco....).
  
  It also gives a detailed look at his deteriorating relationship with Kenneth Halliwell, which so obviously ended in such tragedy.

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• [Deleted User] Posts: 11,275

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  24/05/13 - 05:24 #13

  I was obsessed by Joe Orton for a short time after I saw the film of Prick Up Your Ears. Bought the biography, the diary, the plays everything. Must have a re-read sometime.
  
  I even went to see the play of Entertaining Mr Sloan (with Barbara Windsor as 'Kath') in 1993.

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