What The Butler Saw

What The Butler Saw PDF

Author: Joe Orton

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-12-30

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 1472536665

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"Joe Orton's last play, What the Butler Saw, will live to be accepted as a comedy classic of English literature" (Sunday Telegraph) The chase is on in this breakneck comedy of licensed insanity, from the moment when Dr Prentice, a psychoanalyst interviewing a prospective secretary, instructs her to undress. The plot of What the Butler Saw contains enough twists and turns, mishaps and changes of fortune, coincidences and lunatic logic to furnish three or four conventional comedies. But however the six characters in search of a plot lose the thread of the action - their wits or their clothes - their verbal self-possession never deserts them. Hailed as a modern comedy every bit as good as Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Orton's play is regularly produced, read and studied. What the Butler Saw was Orton's final play."He is the Oscar Wilde of Welfare State gentility" (Observer)

The Complete Plays

The Complete Plays PDF

Author: Joe Orton

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 9780802132154

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This volume contains every play written by Joe Orton, who emerged in the 1960s as the most talented comic playwright in recent English history. Orton, who was murdered in 1967 at the age of thirty-four, was considered the direct successor to Wilde, Shaw, and Coward. Includes: The Ruffian on the Stair Entertaining Mr. Sloane The Good and Faithful Servant Loot The Erpingham Camp Funeral Games What the Butler Saw

Loot

Loot PDF

Author: Joe Orton

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2014-05-01

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 1472517512

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A black farce masterpiece, Loot follows the fortunes of two young thieves, Hal and Dennis. Dennis is a hearse driver for an undertaker. They have robbed the bank next door to the funeral parlour and have returned to Hal's home to hide-out with the loot. Hal's mother has just died and the pair put the money in her coffin, hiding the body elsewhere in the house. With the arrival of Inspector Truscott, the thickened plot turns topsy-turvy. Playing with all the conventions of popular farce, Orton creates a world gone mad and examines in detail English attitudes at mid-century. The play has been called a Freudian nightmare, which sports with superstitions about death - and life. It is regularly produced in professional and amateur productions. First produced in London in 1966, Loot was hailed as "the most genuinely quick-witted, pungent and sprightly entertainment by a new, young British playwright for a decade" (Sunday Telegraph). The Student Edition offers a plot summary, full commentary, character notes and questions for study, besides a chronology and bibliography.

Entertaining Mr Sloane

Entertaining Mr Sloane PDF

Author: Joe Orton

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13:

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'Entertaining Mr Sloane' was first staged in 1964. Despite its success in performance, and being hailed by Sir Terence Rattigan as 'the best first play' he had seen in 'thirty odd years', it was not until shortly before Joe Orton's untimely death in 1967 that theatre audiences and critics began to more fully appreciate the originality of Orton's elegant, alarming and hilarious writing. The play centres on the exploits of a landlady and her brother who entrap a young man into sexual company, each for six months of the year.

Prick Up Your Ears

Prick Up Your Ears PDF

Author: John Lahr

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2013-01-22

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1453288759

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DIVThis mesmerizing story of playwright and author Joe Orton’s brief and remarkable life was named book of the year by Truman Capote and Nobel Prize–winning novelist Patrick White /divDIV Told with precision and extensive detail, Prick Up Your Ears is the engrossing biography of playwright and novelist Joe Orton. Orton’s public career spanned only three years (1964–1967), but his work made a lasting mark on the international stage. From Entertaining Mr. Sloane to his career-making Loot, Orton’s plays often shocked, sometimes outraged, and always captivated audiences with their dark yet farcical cynicism. A rising star and undeniable talent, Orton left much undone when he was bludgeoned to death by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell, who had educated Orton and also dreamed of becoming a famous writer. /divDIV /divDIVPrick Up Your Ears was the basis for the distinguished 1987 film of the same name, directed by Stephen Frears, with a screenplay by Alan Bennett, and starring Gary Oldman and Vanessa Redgrave. A brilliant, page-turning examination of the dueling forces behind Orton’s work, Prick Up Your Ears secured the playwright’s reputation as a great twentieth-century artist./div

Orton Complete Plays

Orton Complete Plays PDF

Author: Joe Orton

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2014-03-20

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 1472537254

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I suppose I'm a believer in Original Sin. People are profoundly bad but irresistibly funny' Joe Orton. This volume contains everything that Orton wrote for the theatre, radio and television from his first play in 1964, The Ruffian on the Stair, up to his violent death in 1967 at the age of 34. It includes his major successes: Entertaining Mr Sloane, which 'made more blood boil that any other British play in the last ten years' (The Times); Loot, 'a Freudian nightmare', which sports with superstitions about death - as well as life; his farce masterpiece, What the Butler Saw; The Erpingham Camp, his version of The Bacchae, set in a Butlin's holiday resort; together with his television plays, Funeral Games and The Good and Faithful Servant. The volume includes a revealing introduction by John Lahr, Orton's official biographer."He is the Oscar Wilde of Welfare State gentility" (Observer)

Orton Complete Plays

Orton Complete Plays PDF

Author: Joe Orton

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-03-20

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 1408177986

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I suppose I'm a believer in Original Sin. People are profoundly bad but irresistibly funny' Joe Orton. This volume contains everything that Orton wrote for the theatre, radio and television from his first play in 1964, The Ruffian on the Stair, up to his violent death in 1967 at the age of 34. It includes his major successes: Entertaining Mr Sloane, which 'made more blood boil that any other British play in the last ten years' (The Times); Loot, 'a Freudian nightmare', which sports with superstitions about death - as well as life; his farce masterpiece, What the Butler Saw; The Erpingham Camp, his version of The Bacchae, set in a Butlin's holiday resort; together with his television plays, Funeral Games and The Good and Faithful Servant. The volume includes a revealing introduction by John Lahr, Orton's official biographer. "He is the Oscar Wilde of Welfare State gentility" (Observer)

Contact Wounds

Contact Wounds PDF

Author: Jonathan Kaplan

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 2006-09

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9780802142788

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The author of The Dressing Station offers a powerful memoir of the author's experiences in a combat-zone hospital in Iraq, sharing stories of his father's experiences as a surgeon on the battlefield in World War II. Reprint.