New Plays for Old : Jonson's Orton and Orton's Jonson
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Joe Orton: the Oscar Wilde of the Welfare State
JOE ORTON: THE OSCAR WILDE OF THE WELFARE STATE by KAREN JANICE LEVINSON B.A. (Honours), University College, London, 1972 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of English) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 1977 (c) Karen Janice Levinson, 1977 ii In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of English The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 30 April 1977 ABSTRACT This thesis has a dual purpose: firstly, to create an awareness and appreciation of Joe Orton's plays; moreover to establish Orton as a focal point in modern English drama, as a playwright whose work greatly influenced and aided in the definition of a form of drama which came to be known as Black Comedy. Orton's flamboyant life, and the equally startling method of his death, distracted critical attention from his plays for a long time. In the last few years there has been a revival of interest in Orton; but most critics have only noted his linguistic ingenuity, his accurate ear for the humour inherent in the language of everyday life which led Ronald Bryden to dub him "the Oscar Wilde of Welfare State gentility." This thesis demonstrates Orton's treatment of social matters: he is concerned with the plight of the individual in society; he satirises various elements of modern life, particularly those institutions which wield authority (like the Church and the Police), and thus control men. -
John Bull University of Lincoln 'We Cannot All Be Masters, Nor All Masters/Cannot Truly Be Follow'd': Joe Orton's Holida
John Bull University of Lincoln ‘We cannot all be masters, nor all masters/Cannot truly be follow’d’: Joe Orton’s Holiday Camp Bacchae – matters of class, genre and medium in The Erpingham Camp. Joe Orton is thought of largely as a writer for the theatre, and yet three of his plays first appeared on television: as many as first appeared on stage. In what follows I want to consider just one of these, The Erpingham Camp (1967) and, by looking at the way in which it evolved both before and after its first outing on television, to offer to both reposition this play in the oeuvre and to re-open the debate about what Orton was moving towards theatrically.1 Before considering its development, it will be useful first to reflect on the public perception of the young dramatist at the time he started to work on it. From a distance of some fifty years, and in a very different social and cultural climate, it is extremely hard to fully comprehend the kind of impact that Joe Orton’s plays had when first produced: and, concomitantly, it is just about impossible to understand the degree of hostility that they aroused in many quarters, and yet it is important to do so in order to understand how Orton dealt practically with the implications of this hostility. Nor was it confined to sections of the paying public and to newspaper critics, as reaction to the work that caused the greatest furore at the time, Loot (1964), will demonstrate. Examination of the Lord Chamberlain’s archive reveals that there was considerable internal pressure to refuse to grant it a licence at all: a reader’s report by Kyle Fletcher (8 December 1964) argued that the play 1 Work on this article has been greatly aided by research in the following archives: ‘Joe Orton Collection’, University of Leicester; ‘’Lord Chancellor’s Papers’ and ‘Peter Gill Archive’, British Library; ‘Lyndsay Anderson Archive’, University of Stirling; the British Film Institute archive. -
Theatre Archive Project: Interview with Michael Codron
THEATRE ARCHIVE PROJECT http://sounds.bl.uk Michael Codron – interview transcript Interviewer: Adam Smith 7 April 2009 Producer. Actors; Alphabetical Order; The Birthday Party; The Caretaker; censorship; critics; directors; 'Dirty Plays' controversy; Entertaining Mr Sloane; Gallery First Nighters; The Homecoming; Jack Hylton The Killing of Sister George; Joan Littlewood; Look Back in Anger; London Arts Theatre; Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith; Donald McWhinnie; Joe Orton; Harold Pinter; producers; Peggy Ramsay; scripts; Share My Lettuce; There's a Girl in My Soup; Kenneth Williams; writers. AS: You have been described as both a producer and an impresario, although some critics claim that there is nowadays an uncertainty as to the precise meaning of these words. Given the slippage between the two, and that you have been described using each of the terms, but that they are not mutually exclusive, which would you describe yourself as? MC: I sometimes say impresario but it sounds like the wretched man from Pinocchio, doesn't it? Do you remember that man that tried to capture Pinocchio? But I really am a producer, a theatre producer. Yes, impresario sounds rather evil, doesn't it? [laughs] Perhaps I am evil, occasionally. AS: So how would you define this profession before 1968, what would it involve? MC: As far as I'm concerned? Well you’re asking me to talk about 1945 aren't you first, when I was all of 15. AS: What about after you became a producer, how would you define the profession? MC: No I didn't become a producer until 1950-something. AS: You're right, we'll do it chronologically. -
Reconsidering Orton and the Critics: * the Good and Faithful Servant
Connotations Vol. 21.1 (2011/2012) Reconsidering Orton and the Critics: * The Good and Faithful Servant YAEL ZARHY-LEVO Joe Orton’s play The Good and Faithful Servant was written in 1964 and first broadcast on UK television by Rediffusion in April 1967. Maurice Charney, discussing the play in his article in Connotations 18.1-3, presents it as an anomalous work within the context of Orton’s drama, contending that “[e]ven though it follows Entertaining Mr Sloane and precedes Loot, Orton makes none of his characteristic attempts to make the play farcical, and it lacks his usual violence and sexual energy” (139); and he continues: “Because it is so uncharacteristic of Orton, it is no surprise that it is his least produced and least discussed play” (148). Charney argues for the excellence of the play, “just be- cause it is so anomalous, so uncompromising, so absolute” (149). Charney’s article in Connotations elaborates upon the view he had presented in an earlier article on the play, included in the 2003 Case- book devoted to Orton’s work, in which he wrote: “It is the play of Orton’s that has attracted the least interest both in the theatre and in critical discussion. The fact is significant in itself because it is the play that seems least “Ortonesque,” as that term has been used to describe Orton’s characteristically witty, epigrammatic, grotesquely lurid, and highly sexual style” (Charney, “Orton’s Bitter Farce” 21). Charney considered that this powerful play, which contains painful autobio- graphical details (albeit successfully disguised), “has been more or *Reference: Maurice Charney, “Joe Orton’s Laodicean Tragedy: The Good and Faithful Servant,” Connotations 18.1-3 (2008/2009): 139-50. -
Mongrel Media Presents
Mongrel Media Presents (2006, 91 mins, United Kingdom) Distribution Publicity Bonne Smith Star PR 1028 Queen Street West Tel: 416-488-4436 Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6J 1H6 Fax: 416-488-8438 Tel: 416-516-9775 Fax: 416-516-0651 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] www.mongrelmedia.com High res stills may be downloaded from http://www.mongrelmedia.com/press.html SCENES OF A SEXUAL NATURE A film about love, sex and the need for long walks. Sex and love. Some seek it, some need it, some spurn it and some pay for it, but we’re all involved in it. However, the only thing that truly connects us is our attempt to connect. Whether it is emotional, physical, subliminal or sexual, as human beings we need to make contact with others. But what are the rules? How do we really know whether someone likes us let alone is in love with us? How do we decide whether to connect with another person for a moment indeed a lifetime? The word that gets used most when discussing these issues is love. According to many great thinkers love is an unattainable notion that is driven more by need than reality, according to others it is the only thing that makes the otherwise intolerable idea of life remotely worth attempting. Scenes Of A Sexual Nature is a film that looks at some of our attempts to find it and how we behave in love, in lust and in trouble. Set on one afternoon on Hampstead Heath, the film investigates the minutiae of seven couples. -
WHAT the BUTLER SAW: Know-The-Show Guide
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey WHAT THE BUTLER SAW: Know-the-Show Guide What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton Know-the-Show Audience Guide researched and written by the Education Department of Artwork by Scott McKowen The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey WHAT THE BUTLER SAW: Know-the-Show Guide In this Guide – About Joe Orton........................................................................................................................ 2 – The Works of Joe Orton ............................................................................................................. 4 – What the Butler Saw: A Synopsis .............................................................................................. 5 – About What the Butler Saw ....................................................................................................... 6 – Who’s Who in the Play ............................................................................................................. 7 – The Changing Face of Theatre in the 60s ................................................................................... 8 – Joe Orton’s Contemporaries ...................................................................................................... 9 – Farce: A Brief Overview .......................................................................................................... 10 – Orton and Farce ...................................................................................................................... 11 – Commentary & Criticism ....................................................................................................... -
{PDF} the Complete Plays
THE COMPLETE PLAYS PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Christopher Marlowe | 752 pages | 06 Jan 2004 | Penguin Books Ltd | 9780140436334 | English | London, United Kingdom The Complete Plays PDF Book About this Item: Paul Hamlyn, London, Light rubbing to the boards. Maybe folks in my class hated his work, but after a lengthy discussion I respected him for his moxy and "sticking it to the man", as it were. Publication date ISBN pbk. Original cloth, gilt lettering, in dustwrapper. Aug 20, Stuart rated it really liked it. Orton was masterful at satirizing the pious and powerful, and the fact that his work can still make relevant social commentary more than 40 years after its creation, speaks to the man's talent and sadly our inability to transcend our hypocrisies. Black coloured cloth covered boards with self embossed initials of author and bust of author to the front panel and gilt coloured titles to the back strip. Many Humana Festival plays have gone on to garner awards and subsequent productions, making a sustained impact on the international dramatic repertoire. E-Book anzeigen. Codron had manoeuvred Orton into meeting his colleague Kenneth Williams in August I saw a production of "Sloane" while I was in college and still think about the lost dentures. Good condition book. He is primarily known for novels, novellas and short stories based on themes of consciousness and morality. The Complete Plays — Guy de Cointet First publication to gathers all theatrical works by artist Guy de Cointet, written between and More information about this seller Contact this seller 1. To purchase this book of 9 plays, click "Add to Shopping Cart" above. -
Joe Orton: a High Comedy of Bad Manners Joel Greenberg
Spring 2001 133 Joe Orton: A High Comedy of Bad Manners Joel Greenberg Joe Orton, dubbed 'the Oscar Wilde of Welfare State Gentility' by critic Ronald Bryden, established a new kind of theatre with just three full-length plays and less than a half dozen one-act and radio plays. That so modest a body of work altered the possibilities of stage comedy is remarkable, but that the playwright spent only three years of his life, the last three years (1964-67), in his pursuit of and mastery over a unique voice is nothing short of extraordinary. Orton was an exemplary student, whose education came not from formal training but from his inexhaustible appetite for reading, listening to radio drama, attending theatre and eavesdropping on life on the street and in the gutter. No stranger to the works of the great Restoration playwrights or Oscar Wilde, Orton eschewed the new naturalism of writers like Osborne and Wesker, preferring the indirection and obfuscation of a comedy whose ultimate aim must be to resist the predictable in order to lacerate the audience's complacency. Between 1964, with his premiere production, Entertaining Mr. Shane, and 1967, when he completed the rehearsal draft of What the Butler Saw, Orton struck chords of outrage and delirious glee as he perfected his unique brand of high comedy which would, in his lifetime, come to be known as 'Ortonesque.' High Comedy begins with the playwrights of the British Restoration. What is most striking about Restoration comedy is its passionate reliance on language over action, a predilection of British theatre writing that served as Orton's chief inspiration. -
LOOT Education Pack
LOOT Education Pack 1 Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 3 Joe Orton ................................................................................................................................... 4 My brother, Joe ......................................................................................................................... 6 Synopsis of Loot ......................................................................................................................... 7 Censorship ............................................................................................................................... 10 Loot Coverage .......................................................................................................................... 11 Notes from the Director .......................................................................................................... 12 Meet Dennis and Hal ............................................................................................................... 14 Funny Money: Loot then and now .......................................................................................... 15 Glossary of Terms .................................................................................................................... 17 Credits ...................................................................................................................................... 18 This -
By Joe Orton a Playgoer’S Guide
A Few Comments... "It's Oscar Wilde crossed with Monty Python." – USA Today "the most genuinely quick-witted, pungent and sprightly entertainment by a new, young British playwright for a decade" – Sunday Telegraph “Loot is a glittering, beautifully written force of bad manners and furious slights against the superstition of death and organized religion.” – Michael Coveney, The Daily Mail by Joe Orton a playgoer’s guide A Plot Summary This guide was researched by the Loot Task Force: A black farce masterpiece, Loot follows the fortunes of two young Meghan MacCallum, Michael MacKinnon, thieves, Hal and Dennis. Dennis is a hearse driver for an undertaker. Jodi Paget and Patricia McFadgen They have robbed the bank next door to the funeral parlor and have returned to Hal's home to hide-out with the loot. Hal's mother has just and assembled and edited by the died and the pair put the money in her coffin, hiding the body in the Loot Editing Team: closet. With the arrival of Inspector Truscott, the plot thickens. Playing Leanda McQuaid, Meaghan Balzer, with all the conventions of popular farce, Orton creates a world gone Erin Legare and Kristina Gilders mad as characters contradict assumptions about their roles: Fay, the nurse, has a track record of killing, rather than healing; Inspector St. Thomas University English 2223: Truscott beats up London citizens; Hal, a good Catholic son who can’t From the Page to the Stage tell a lie, is a crook; and Dennis, Hal’s partner in crime and bed, is visit our Web site at: engaged to Fay. -
PRESS RELEASE Monday 13 July 2020
PRESS RELEASE Monday 13 July 2020 CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR ONLINE FESTIVAL MY WHITE BEST FRIEND (AND OTHER LETTERS LEFT UNSAID) CO-CURATED BY RACHEL DE-LAHAY AND MILLI BHATIA, PRODUCED BY TOBI KYEREMATENG RUNNING MONDAY 13 JULY TO FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020 6.30PM - Performers include Adelayo Adedayo, Inès De Clercq, Anne-Marie Duff, Paapa Essiedu, Martina Laird, Alex Lawther, Neil Maskell, Sinead Matthews, Lucian Msamati, Rosamund Pike and Danielle Vitalis - Letters by Amma Asante, Elliot Barnes-Worrell, Ryan Calais Cameron, Clint Dyer, Afua Hirsch, Yasmin Joseph, Tife Kusoro, Lettie Precious, Campbell X and Rachael Young - Tickets available here - Images click here. Image Clockwise: Adelayo Adedayo, Inès De Clercq, Anne-Marie Duff, Paapa Essiedu, Martina Laird, Alex Lawther, Danielle Vitalis, Rosamund Pike, Lucian Msamati, Sinead Matthews, Neil Maskell Adelayo Adedayo, Inès De Clercq, Anne-Marie Duff, Paapa Essiedu, Martina Laird, Alex Lawther, Neil Maskell, Sinead Matthews, Lucian Msamati, Rosamund Pike and Danielle Vitalis have been cast in the online festival My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid). The performers reading letters that say the unsaid will be announced at noon on the day of each performance and will see the letters for the first time in front of a live online audience that evening. With two letters read live each night, audiences will only discover which of the actors is reading which letters during the live event. The recipients of the letters will remain anonymous. Writer Rachel De-Lahay and director Milli Bhatia commissioned Amma Asante, Elliot Barnes-Worrell, Ryan Calais Cameron, Clint Dyer, Afua Hirsch, Yasmin Joseph, Tife Kusoro, Lettie Precious, Campbell X and Rachael Young to write for this new version of the My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid) series. -
Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Loot", "What the Butler Saw", "The Ruffian on the Stair", "The Erpingham Camp", "Funeral Games", and "The
[PDF] Complete Plays: "Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Loot", "What the Butler Saw", "The Ruffian on the Stair", "The Erpingham Camp", "Funeral Games", and "The ... "Funeral Games" "Good and Faithful Servant" by Orton, Joe (1976) Paperback Full Download Download ebook Complete Plays: "Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Loot", "What the Butler Saw", "The Ruffian on the Stair", "The Erpingham Camp", "Funeral Games", and "The ... "Funeral Games" "Good and Faithful Servant" by Orton, Joe (1976) Paperback, Download Online Complete Plays: "Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Loot", "What the Butler Saw", "The Ruffian on the Stair", "The Erpingham Camp", "Funeral Games", and "The ... "Funeral Games" "Good and Faithful Servant" by Orton, Joe (1976) Paperback Book, Read E-Books online Complete Plays: "Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Loot", "What the Butler Saw", "The Ruffian on the Stair", "The Erpingham Camp", "Funeral Games", and "The ... "Funeral Games" "Good and Faithful Servant" by Orton, Joe (1976) Paperback, Download Best Book Complete Plays: "Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Loot", "What the Butler Saw", "The Ruffian on the Stair", "The Erpingham Camp", "Funeral Games", and "The ... "Funeral Games" "Good and Faithful Servant" by Orton, Joe (1976) Paperback, Download ebook Complete Plays: "Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Loot", "What the Butler Saw", "The Ruffian on the Stair", "The Erpingham Camp", "Funeral Games", and "The ... "Funeral Games" "Good and Faithful Servant" by Orton, Joe (1976) Paperback Online, Read Complete Plays: "Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Loot", "What the Butler Saw", "The Ruffian on the Stair", "The Erpingham Camp", "Funeral Games", and "The ... "Funeral Games" "Good and Faithful Servant" by Orton, Joe (1976) Paperback Online Free, Read Online Complete Plays: "Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Loot", "What the Butler Saw", "The Ruffian on the Stair", "The Erpingham Camp", "Funeral Games", and "The ..