Above The Stag presents a new musical based on the lives of gay playwright Joe Orton and his lover, and murderer, Kenneth Halliwell.
Joe Orton was the celebrated writer of irreverently hilarious plays Loot, What The Butler Saw and Entertaining Mr Sloane (as well as witty, explicit diaries); and close friends with Kenneth Williams.
Beginning on the day Joe and Kenneth met, and continuing to the day they died 16 years and two months later, Orton fizzes with their ambitions for success and celebrity, and charts the rise in Joe’s fame that increasingly eclipsed Kenneth’s role in it. Their relationship barely made it past the 1967 Sexual Offences Act which decriminalised gay sex: they were dead in August that year.
Orton captures the lies and despair, as well as the humour and bravado, of these prickly, abrasive, funny, lusty and brilliant young men.
Written by Richard Silver & Sean J Hume. Directed by Tim McArthur. Choreographed by Phil Aiden . Musical Director Chris Huntley.
Orton is at The Stag Theatre from 2nd April – 4th May 2014. Tickets are now on sale, priced at £18, opening in the first week at £12. Book online at www.abovethestag.com.
