Loot

by Joe Orton

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 of the mid 20th 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.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Humor, Classics, Comedy, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

John Kingsley ("Joe") Orton was an English playwright. In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death in 1967, he shocked, outraged, and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies. The adjective Ortonesque is now used to refer to something characterised by a dark but farcical cynicism.

Joe Orton began to write plays in the early 1960s. He wrote his only novel: posthumously published as Head to Toe, in 1959, and had his writing accepted soon afterward. In 1963 the BBC paid £65 for the radio play The Ruffian on the Stair, broadcast on 31 August 1964. It was substantially rewritten for the stage in 1966.

Orton had completed Entertaining Mr. Sloane by the time Ruffian was broadcast. The play premiered on 6 May 1964 directed by Michael Codron. Reviews ranged from praise to outrage. It lost money in its 3-week run, but critical praise from playwright Terence Rattigan, who invested £3,000 in it, ensured its survival. Sloane tied for first in the Variety Critics' Poll for "Best New Play" and Orton came second for "Most Promising Playwright." Within a year, Sloane was being performed in New York, Spain, Israel and Australia, as well as being made into a film and a television play.

Orton's next work was Loot, written between June and October 1964. The play is a wild parody of detective fiction, adding the blackest farce and jabs at established ideas on death, the police, religion, and justice. It underwent sweeping rewrites before it was judged fit for the West End. Codron had manoeuvred Orton into meeting his colleague Kenneth Williams in August 1964. Orton reworked Loot with Williams in mind for Truscott. His other inspiration for the role was DS Harold Challenor. The play opened to scathing reviews. Loot moved to the West End in November 1966, raising Orton's confidence to new heights while he was in the middle of writing What the Butler Saw. Loot went on to win several awards and firmly established Orton's fame. He sold the film rights for £25,000 although he was certain it would flop. It did, but Orton, still on an absolute high, proceeded over the next ten months to revise The Ruffian on the Stair and The Erpingham Camp for the stage as a double called Crimes of Passion; wrote Funeral Games; wrote the screenplay Up Against It for the Beatles; and worked on What the Butler Saw.

The Good and Faithful Servant was a transitional work for Orton. A one-act television play completed by June 1964 but first broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion on 6 April 1967. The Erpingham Camp, Orton's take on The Bacchae, written through mid-1965 and offered to Rediffusion in October of that year, was broadcast on 27 June 1966 as the 'pride' segment in their series Seven Deadly Sins.

Orton wrote Funeral Games from July to November 1966 for a 1967 Rediffusion series, The Seven Deadly Virtues, It dealt with charity--especially Christian charity—in a confusion of adultery and murder. Rediffusion did not use the play; instead, it was made as one of the first productions of the new ITV company Yorkshire Television, and broadcast on 26 August 1968.

On 9 August 1967, Orton's lover Kenneth Halliwell bludgeoned 34-year-old Orton to death at his home in Islington, London, with a hammer and then committed suicide with an overdose of Nembutal tablets. Investigators determined that Halliwell died first, because Orton's body was still warm. Orton was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium, his coffin brought into the chapel to The Beatles song "A Day in the Life". Harold Pinter read the eulogy saying "He was a bloody marvellous writer."

In his hometown, Leicester, a new pedestrian concourse outside the Curve theatre's main entrance is named "Orton Square." John Lahr wrote a biography of Orton entitled Prick Up Your Ears in 1978. A 1987 film adaptation directed by Stephen Frears starred Gary Oldman as Orton and Alfred Molina as Halliwell. Alan Bennett wrote the screenplay.

Reviews

[Yasaman · Rating 2 out of 5]

بعد از «رومئو و ژولیت » این دومین تجربه ی نمایشنامه خوانی من بود.
کتابی با عنوان «جیب بری»

[Jim Ef · Rating 3 out of 5]

5.9/10
Loot is a satyric play, so there are a lot of exaggerations. The story is a bit crazy and all the characters are behaving in a way that doesn't seem normal. It's funny yet at the same time the way people act annoys you ( of course it seems, that is what the author tried to achieve, he didn't want to create likeable characters ). They only care about themselves and nothing more. The book satirizes religion and authority (in this case the police) so some people might find it offending.

[George K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Βαθμολογία: 7/10

Πρόκειται για ένα σαφώς σατιρικό έργο, στα όρια της φαρσοκωμωδίας, με όλες τις αναμενόμενες υπερβολές. Η όλη ιστορία είναι αρκετά τρελή και οι χαρακτήρες ως επί το πλείστον συμπεριφέρονται κάπως περίεργα και παίζουν πολύ με τα στερεότυπα, με τον συγγραφέα βέβαια να έχει σκοπό να σατιρίσει με καυστικό και έντονα κωμικό τρόπο, τόσο τη θρησκεία όσο και την εξουσία (στην προκειμένη περίπτωση την αστυνομία). Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι τέτοιου ύφους έργα είναι ακριβώς του γούστου μου, πάντως οπωσδήποτε πέρασα καλά και απόλαυσα αρκετούς από τους διαλόγους, ενώ έως ένα βαθμό νομίζω ότι πετυχαίνει και το στόχο του.

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Irreverente, descarada, cínica y original obra teatral que bajo el pretexto del botín escondido en un difunto, crítica la ambición de las personas, las costumbres y métodos del gobierno inglés y sus fuerzas del orden ( ojo, España tampoco se salva de la quema). Una mezcla de misterio, humor excéntrico y género negro de malos y no tan malos.

[Roberto Bunting · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play is amazing. It's a farce and it makes fun at all the things that you're "not supposed to make fun of." Go read it, have fun.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orton's play is both wonderfully silly and wonderfully serious. He pulls off a nearly impossible balancing act.

[Maria Felgueiras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious!

[Joe Loftus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twenty-four hours ago Michael O’Connor was alive. Albeit he wasn’t doing very well. Eyes barely open, if open at all. The death rattle and all that. I hadn’t been to see him. Don’t remember the last time I saw him. The last goodbye. My mum and dad had. He was lying on a hospital bed in the living room. Quite Orton in a way. A few faces surrounding him. They knew it was the end. Either today or tomorrow. I was at home. I knew it was only a matter of time. I was on page forty of Loot. I had been for the past week. My first insight into the work of Joe Orton. A writer I had heard so much about but never delved into. Many others spring to mind.

It is now 19:29. The day after. At 19:29 yesterday Mike was drifting into his final hour of life. Now he knows. He knows so much more than all of us. The answer to all of life’s biggest unanswerable questions. He knows if there is something. Or if there is nothing. He has experienced heaven, or hell, or the beautiful nothing. And I’m still here. Doing the same old thing. As I will do until I enter my final hour.

I had to get out of the house. There wasn’t a bad atmosphere so to speak. But I couldn’t stay in. I couldn’t stay in but I didn’t want to drink myself to oblivion at such an early hour. So I went to the pub and nursed a vinegary pint of Landlord, opened Loot, and decided to finish it. What a play. A masterpiece it really is. So dark, and funny, and fresh. Pinter and Ionesco spring to mind more than any others. I loved it. All of it. And I recommend it to all of you.

As I turned the final page, You To Me Are Everything came on in the pub. I finished what I was reading and text my dad. I wrote: You To Me Are Everything just came on in here. Best song that's been on in the past hour. Strange Mike must've heard this a thousand times or so. And now never again. I wonder when he last heard it? That's what fascinates me with death. There was a final time. And he never knew it. Just like the last time we went the park for a kickabout with you or a game of intensity. At the time it was the norm to go the park. We probably did it every night of it the week. But bizarrely there was a last time. It just happened. And then it's over. Like a death in itself. Just finished Loot. Absolutely brilliant. Hilarious, shocking, and so fresh.

So Mike has gone. He’s left this mortal coil. And now the madness surrounds us. The bedlam and the chaos. The funeral? Or wont there be one? The phone calls. Phone ringing every five minutes. Ireland and America and Widnes on the phone. I dreamt of him last night. In between the nightmares. Having nightmares the past two or three weeks. Every night. I dreamt me and my dad drove past him on the road and pulled over. And he was there. Smiling and smoking a cigarette. That’s all I remember. And then I dreamt of ghosts playing the piano. His two paintings on my wall. And when I woke at around five am, I expected to see him, stood there, looking at me. But like Godot, he never came. Ruari woke and thought he saw him but it was just an old coat. My father went downstairs and sat in the dark. A billion memories bursting through his mind. He sat there and prayed to see him, staring at the Francis Bacon chair. Not out of grief or mourning I don’t think, but just to see if he would appear. He heard footsteps in the kitchen, footsteps that lasted a small forever, and he thought No More Cold Lazarus. But he never came.

All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all shall turn to dust again.

[Jacquee Storozynski-Toll · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just directed a production of this play and it is hilarious. It knocks religion, the police and all the other sacred cows. It was written in the sixties and is as relevant today as it was when written.

'Reading isn't an occupation we encourage among police officers. We try to keep the paperwork down to a minimum.'

'You know nothing of the law, I know nothing of the law, that makes us equal in the sight of the law'
'The theft of a pharoah is something I hadn't reckoned on. Whose mummy is this?' 'Mine! I was an only child'

[Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of the satire seems to come from culture-specific (read: British) stereotypes, but that doesn't diminish the fact that this is a funny play with some very fun scenes in it. A lot of it is actually quite relevant to today also. Though the part of the policeman Truscott seems to be written as two different people, the rest of the characters are all written from very believable viewpoints and mannerisms.

A play I would love to see at some point.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brillant farce and play on stereotypes love you Joe

[Pedro Alhinho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Datada dos anos 60 do sec. passado esta é uma farsa policial, negra e hilariante onde nenhuma instituição britanica é poupada. Tudo gira em torno de um cadaver e do produto de um assalto a um banco no dia que haveria de ser o do funeral.
Em notas de actualidade contem sugestivas referencias à corrupcao e à eutanásia.
Leiam-se estas:

O dinheiro vai a caminho de se tornar incorruptivel. A carne está à espera de vez.

Nao percebes nada da lei. Eu nao percebo nada da lei. É isso que nos torna iguais perante a lei.

A senhora McLeavy estava a morrer. Se a eutanásia nao fosse contra a minha religiao, te-la-ia praticado. Em vez disso, resolvi assassina-la.

[Randy Lowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this less dated and sharper than Look Back In Anger, which I bought at the same time and read first. An attempt to generate some basis for an opinion on this moment of so-called revolution in British theater. It was still more of a document than a screeching, punkish provocation, but the spirit was clear and I could fairly easily put myself into the audience. There were several brilliant lines, and even a line of stage direction that made me laugh out loud. Glad I read it. Joe Orton earned his legend.

[Chirag · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outlandishly funny play! I studied this play as part of my AS Coursework and my teacher was also absolutely brilliant. Before this, I had never really thoroughly enjoyed a play and so I started reading it without much expectation. Although it was a short play it says something that I finished it in one sitting. I found the absurdity and the satire fantastic and the stichomythia was brilliant. It's hard to choose a favourite part but I think the "limbless girl killer" exchange was excellent. Orton's nihilistic outlook is perfectly brought to the action by Truscott (among the best detective characters created) and he attacks popular social view points in a way that you're too busy laughing to feel guilty. Best piece of coursework I've done and definitely my favourite play!

[Meran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play is an irreverent involving a nurse, her now deceased patient, the wife of a clueless older man, whose son has dug through the wall of a mortuary to steal the money in a bank, with he's friend, who, it turns out, being in love with ALL women (by fathering children on 5 of them) is in love with that very same nurse. All is found out by a police detective, masterfully disguised as a Water Board Inspector. The ending is NOT predictable but is IS very funny!

It's amazing how a play can be written, using only one scene and 6 characters (not counting the corpse, which is probably "played" by a dummy.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loot certainly made me smirk in places but I think I read plays too fast and therefore miss some of the impact, perhaps I should read aloud the next play I read. Am I correct in thinking that the copper walks off with all the cash in the end? Nothing Vic Mackie about that at all - same stories repeated through time. Written in the 60s but ageless really, highly relevant still although the use of the word baby between friends was odd. There's a great deal more to this play writing lark than I first suspected.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Joe Orton was considered in the 1960's to be significant, new playwright. Audiences and critics surprised to find scatological humour in the sacrosanct environment of live theatre mistook novelty for innovation. Orton's plays were incredibly vulgar but very funny in places. Once the initial shock was over everyone realized how brainless the plays. Orton's talent was simply that of a stand-up comedian with a knack for racy jokes. Do not waste your time either reading this trite work or attending a performance. You surely have better things to do.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hal shows literally no remorse or bereavement throughout the episode. He takes his mother’s clothes off, and uses her body as a prop throughout his crime. Fay alternates between crass opportunism an imitations of moral superiority (“The British police force used to be run by men of integrity.”). The inspector ends up making a mockery of his profession as well.

See my other reviews here!

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious satire of British cops & robbers; Catholics & Protestents. Orton cited Richard Sheridan, Oliver Goldsmith, and Oscar Wilde as his influences (all of whom I love). This play has the same sense of humor but is less a comedy of manners and bit more of a farce. I would love to see a performance!


{read as part of Orton's "The Complete Plays" rather than this specific edition}

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

As mentioned by other reviewers this is an entertaining black humoured farce. Personally found this a more engaging and 'fun' read than "Entertaining Mr Sloane" which seemed to me a entirely bleak, deeply excoriating vision (which of course has a merit in itself). This seems to retain the social satire and dark themes while being highly entertaining.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The play is a traditional farce, but with black humor of the sort typical of the theatre of the absurd. The characters are stock types, reminiscent of farce, and of Jonsonian humors.

Acquired unknown date
The Word, Montreal, Quebec

[Abraham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The jokes were sometimes out of my cultural reach, and the technical bits -- like pacing and timing -- sometimes felt a bit off, but I enjoyed this play well enough in written form. And I imagine it'd be considerably better in a well-done stage production.

[Kerrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

English literature coursework play.

For me, there is no plot, and it fustrates me that the wrong person was convicted of the crime... Or was he?

However, the argument of whether it is farcical or satirical allows you to analyse it in detail while still engaging thoroughly with the text

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this play, and I didn’t see the ending coming at all! I had worked out from the beginning where the money was and didn’t need that revealing but for sure didn’t expect that ending! I did find at times the text to be rather slow but it was good over all!
That’s all :))))

[Abraham · Rating 3 out of 5]

But Mcdonagh is much better. I did enjoy the Orton Bio-pic Prick Up Your Ears, though. Crazy story...

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worked on at Malvern, was ASM :D Absolutely loved it - utterly hilarious, and our cast was perfect!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark yet funny - truly British.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

What fun - but of the blackest variety. Quite topical in that one of the themes is about police corruption. Seems it will be for ever with us

[Irrelephant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for an English class. Pretty hilarious, if you like Oscar Wilde you might like this one. It's short, too.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Alhambra, Bradford. Enjoyed it so much I left a card at the stage door saying so.