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PRICK UP YOUR EARS
A Biography of Joe Orton By John Lahr
Review by M.G. Wood
Is there anything more tragic than an artist struck down just as he or she is on the verge of fulfilling their greatest potential? To be extinguished by no fault of their own. Well, possibly the fault of blindness. Familiarity breeds contempt? How about familiarity breeds sensory deprivation? When you hear of a man or woman murdering their spouse or loved one before killing themselves, you can’t help wondering, how did the murder victim not see this coming? How can someone live for years with another person and not realize that this person is gonna fuckin’ kill me one day? Love is blind? What makes Joe Orton’s story all the more fascinating is the fact that many of the intricate details of his murderer’s psychosis may well have laid within the characters of his own plays. Did Orton continue his relationship with Halliwell knowing he provided a devious insight into the mind of a twisted soul? After Halliwell murdered his friend of many years, he made a note to whomever may find the bloody scene, atop Orton’s personal diary, If You Read This Diary, All Will Be Explained. For Joe Orton not only wrote brilliant comic plays, he also wrote an elegantly in-depth diary beginning as a youth searching for a creative outlet all the way through to his triumph as a world renowned writer. As a theatre critic, author John Lahr knows a thing or two about the life of the mind, and this shines through in PRICK. Mr. Lahr goes into exceptional detail when discussing Orton’s plays. Anyone who is fascinated by the creative process, any creative process, will find Lahr’s insights riveting. From the germ of an idea to the simplest inspiration for a minor character to the over-arching story lines, Lahr doesn’t miss a beat. This is particularly interesting in Orton’s case, due to the dynamics of a man who not only did not know where his true talent lay until he exhausted his limited range as an actor, but also had to work and hustle every step of the way as a lower middle class gay man in 1950’s England. Along the way Joe Orton meets Kenneth Halliwell and while it may not have been love at first sight, the two found in each other perfect accomplices. Accomplices in what may you ask? Well, in one of the most entertaining passages in PRICK we get a blow by blow account of one of the most scandalous petty crimes in British history. In what is truly a British crime, the two young men were sent to jail for six months for defacing and vandalizing library books. Now, you may say, what? But, you must see to believe…
This passage of time in the early days of Orton and Halliwell’s love affair is so breezy and nice, it could have come from a late 20th century romantic comedy, had the real story not been tinged with tragic fate. But, John Lahr takes great pains to make it clear to the reader that even in these halcyon days, there were signs of Halliwell’s unstable personality. Love is blind? Like A STAR IS BORN, when Joe Orton’s fame and fortune begins to bloom to fruition, Kenneth Halliwell’s envy and insecurity begins to eat away at his sanity. Add to this a fragile relationship that has naturally run its course and you have a recipe for disaster. But, in a perfect world, disaster in this case would have been a bitter and ugly separation, not murder. Toward the end, there are some fun tidbits about Joe Orton’s being called upon to write a more mature film script for The Beatles after the boys had grown wearisome of the slapstick antics of their films. One of neatest scenes is when Orton goes to dinner with Brian Epstein (The Beatles manager) and a newly mustached Paul McCartney, as they are in the midst of recording SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND. Fans of the late, great character Al Sweringin from the HBO series DEADWOOD will be intrigued by the fist fight that ensued between star Ian McShane and Orton during rehearsals for LOOT, which resulted in a black eye for Orton and another great theatre story for McShane. Kenneth Halliwell was Salieri to Orton’s Mozart, and as someone who may or may not have had the talent to excel (in the end Halliwell busied himself with rather intriguing collages, one of which decorated the wall of the flat he shared with Orton) as an artist. What’s abundantly clear is, Joe Orton had an enormous talent, and Kenneth Halliwell may well have had a hand, directly or indirectly, in developing that talent. And it was from that same dark well in Halliwell that inspired Orton; that extinguished Orton.
Complete Plays: The Ruffian on the Stair Entertaining Mr. Sloane The Good and Faithful Servant Loot The Erpingham Camp Funeral Games What the Butler Saw
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