'I am an acquired taste'
Joe Orton Joe Orton: The satirical English playwright who shocked audiences with his unique blend of black humor and scandalous comedies, an important persecutor of the queer movement, and is, perhaps the finest writer of farce in the whole of the twentieth century. How is that for an introduction? Orton was accepted into RADA in the summer of 1951. There he met Kenneth Halliwell. Halliwell was seven years older than Orton and he quickly became his mentor and lover. Both of them collaborated in a number of plays together, but did nothing serious, or note worthy during this time. Because of this they used to amuse themselves with pranks and hoaxes. They were eventually discovered and prosecuted for this misdemeanor (like stealing and defacing library books). The incident was reported in the national newspaper the Daily Mirror as "Gorilla in the Roses". They were charged with five counts of theft and malicious damage, admitted damaging more than seventy books and were jailed for six months and fined '262. Call it irony - but these books are now the most valued of the Islington Library collection. It was the 1960s, and this was the time when Orton began to write plays. His plays were so dark and grotesque that the term 'Ortonesque' became an acknowledged term for "outrageously macabre". 'Loot' went on to win many awards, which had an agreeable influence on the box office -- and firmly established Orton's prominence in the literary gentry. He sold the film rights for '25,000 - although he was certain it would flop; and it did, Orton was still on an absolute high. In March 1967 Orton and Halliwell had intended to holiday in Libya. The relationship between them had depreciated so low that they returned home after barely a day. Orton was working hard, enthusiastic and happy; Halliwell was becoming increasingly miserable, argumentative and seemed to be overwhelmed with mysterious ailments. In the middle of the night on August 9, 1967, Halliwell beat Orton brains out and clubbed him to death with nine hammer-blows to the head and then committed suicide by swallowing twenty-two sleeping pills. Halliwell, who had supported and loved Orton, felt increasingly threatened and lonely by Orton's success and had come to rely on anti-depressants and sleeping pills. Their bodies were discovered the following morning when a chauffeur arrived to take Orton to a meeting to discuss a screenplay he had written for the Beatles. Halliwell left a suicide note, informing police the reason for his death and Orton's would be explained if they read Orton's diaries, "especially the latter part". The diaries have since been published, but do not explain anything. Oddly enough, the last few days of Orton's life are missing from the account. At the time of his death, Orton was on his way to worldwide fame. 'Loot' had been named the Evening Standard's best play of 1966. He had been commissioned to write a script for a movie to star The Beatles--'Up Against It'. He was in the final stages of revising 'What the Butler Saw', (often regarded as his best play).
Orton's plays can be read as a twisted, exaggerated autobiography. In showing us how we destroy ourselves, Orton's plays are themselves a survival tactic. But, nothing could have prepared him for his gory end. He had deserved better. He was dubbed by 'The Observer' as being the 'Oscar Wilde of the Welfare State Gentility'. Orton must have expected to die young, maybe that's why he wrote his plays to last. And - last - they definitely have. To know more about literature log on to http://www.abouttexts.com |
