Joe Orton Laid Bare

Joe Orton was the enfant terrible of 1960s British theatre. Orton in his brief meteoric career took indecency and bad taste to the limits that scandalised polite society but was in tune with the swinging 60s.

The salacious goings on in his plays such as Entertaining Mr Sloane laid bare the hypocrisies of the middle classes. Orton earlier caused a stir when he defaced library books and ended up doing time which in some ways unleashed his writing talents to the full. After being released from prison he went on to become a published writer with his first work being broadcast on radio.

Here friends, family and collaborators such as actor Kenneth Cranham talk about Orton, his destructive friendship with lover Kenneth Halliwell but Cranham and others do not hold black in laying blame on others who went out of their way to wind up the fragile Halliwell so they can have Orton all to themselves.

Excerpts of Orton plays were recreated, more amusing were bits of his unpublished work such as a sketch called 'Until She Screams' which was very very naughty, just like Orton.