Loot *** TNT
Joe Orton’s short life (1933-1967) was brutally terminated when his lover hammered him to death before committing suicide. But in a few productive years, he made a lasting impact with a handful of black comedies which shocked '60s audiences.
Premiered in 1965, Loot relentlessly mocks Catholics, the police and small time crooks in a farcical scenario revolving round an embalmed corpse on the way to its funeral, a much-married, serial killer nurse with her sights set on the newly widowed McCleavy, and the stashed proceeds of a bank robbery. Thoroughly disrespectful of the dead, the grieving and just about everything else it touches on, this anarchic satire needs deft playing to carry it off.
Though older than Orton intended, Doon Mackichan (from Smack the Pony) is otherwise well cast as the predatory Fay who takes her nursing duties several steps too far, and James Hayes is convincingly distressed as the bereaved McCleavy. The young thieves (his callous son Hal and sidekick Dennis) don’t fare so well, but David Haig is first rate as Truscott, the blustering policeman posing as an inspector from the Metropolitan Water Board. Volatile and self-important, his is a great comic performance which reveals all the pent up violence and stupidity of Orton’s presciently corrupt creation.
Joe Orton’s short life (1933-1967) was brutally terminated when his lover hammered him to death before committing suicide. But in a few productive years, he made a lasting impact with a handful of black comedies which shocked '60s audiences.
Premiered in 1965, Loot relentlessly mocks Catholics, the police and small time crooks in a farcical scenario revolving round an embalmed corpse on the way to its funeral, a much-married, serial killer nurse with her sights set on the newly widowed McCleavy, and the stashed proceeds of a bank robbery. Thoroughly disrespectful of the dead, the grieving and just about everything else it touches on, this anarchic satire needs deft playing to carry it off.
Though older than Orton intended, Doon Mackichan (from Smack the Pony) is otherwise well cast as the predatory Fay who takes her nursing duties several steps too far, and James Hayes is convincingly distressed as the bereaved McCleavy. The young thieves (his callous son Hal and sidekick Dennis) don’t fare so well, but David Haig is first rate as Truscott, the blustering policeman posing as an inspector from the Metropolitan Water Board. Volatile and self-important, his is a great comic performance which reveals all the pent up violence and stupidity of Orton’s presciently corrupt creation.
Tricycle Kilburn High Road, NW6. (020 7328 1000) Until January 31. Tickets £12-£22.
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