Rebel playwright Joe Orton was part of
the landscape of the Swinging Sixties.
Irreverent black comedies that satirised
the Establishment, such as Entertaining
Mr Sloane (1964), Loot (1965) and
What the Butler Saw (first performed
in 1969), contributed to a new
counterculture. Orton’s representation
of same-sex desire on stage, and
candid account of queer life before
decriminalisation in his posthumously
published diaries, also made him a
gay icon. Part of the zeitgeist, he was
photographed with Twiggy, smoked
marijuana with Paul McCartney and
wrote a screenplay for The Beatles.
Described by biographer John Lahr as
a ‘cool customer’, Orton shopped for
clothes on Carnaby Street, wore ‘hipster
pants’ and looked – in his own words
– ‘way out’. Although he cast himself
as an iconoclast, Emma Parker suggests
that Orton’s record collection reveals a
different side to the ruffian playwright
who furiously pitched himself against
polite society. The music that Orton
listened to in private suggests the same
queer ear, or homosexual sensibility, that
shaped his plays. Yet, stylistically, this
music contradicts his cool public persona
and reputation for riotous dissent.
History
Citation
Art & Music, 2017, Spring 2017 (No. 37 - The Life and Times of Joe Orton), pp. 44-48 (5)
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/School of English
Version
VoR (Version of Record)
Published in
Art & Music
Publisher
SaatchiGallery.com.
Acceptance date
2017-01-06
Copyright date
2017
Publisher version
http://artmag.saatchigallery.com/
Notes
The file associated with this record is under a permanent embargo in accordance with the publisher's policy. The full text may be available through the publisher links provided above.