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Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton
Directed by Stevie Hughes
Performances: Tuesday 1st to Saturday 5th February 2011, Bell Theatre
Middle-aged Kath has amorous designs on her new, young lodger but Ed, her domineering brother, will have none of it until he too succumbs to the charms of the mysterious Mr Sloane. As they compete for the boy’s affections, their lust soon rips open old family wounds as Sloane insouciantly plays off brother against sister. That is, until their ageing father (the "Dadda") recognises Sloane as the still-at-large perpetrator of a past, violent crime. Threatened with exposure, Sloane takes drastic measures that crank up the absurdity to hysterical levels.
Terence Rattigan (no friend of the ‘new wave’ theatre of the 50s and 60s) called Entertaining Mr Sloane "the best first play" he had seen "in thirty odd years" and to my mind, it’s Orton’s funniest: his targets in it are "ordinary, decent people" rather than the trusted institutions of society (which are not so trusted nowadays) and instead of the verbal machine-gun fire you get in Loot and What the Butler Saw, Orton slowly fattens and ripens his prey before surgically picking them off, like a sniper, piece by piece as the play reaches its hilarious climax.
Cast
Kath - Lorraine Spenceley
Mr Sloane - Ted Riley
Kemp (the 'Dadda') - Pat Brown
Ed - Tim Witcomb
For more details, please contact Stevie Hughes, Director
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