Prick Up Your Ears
Comedy Theatre, London
Celebrity kills. In the case of 1960s playwright Joe Orton, who was murdered by his lover Kenneth Halliwell in August 1967, one of the reasons for the killing was jealous rage about the fact that while Orton had achieved fame, Halliwell hadn’t. Kenneth Halliwell then committed suicide. Since that time, there has been a danger that the lurid end of the two men’s lives might sometimes eclipse Orton’s work: a double murder.
Although Orton lived to complete the first draft of his masterpiece, What the Butler Saw, he never got around to writing a play called Prick Up Your Ears, whose naughty, innuendo-heavy title had been suggested by Halliwell. But the title lived on. And on. First as John Lahr’s 1978 biography, then as Stephen Frears’ 1987 film and now as Simon Bent’s new play. Starring Little Britain’s Matt Lucas as Halliwell and Chris New as Orton, the play begins by peeking at the life of the two men before Orton became famous. When they first met, at RADA in 1951, Halliwell was the dominant partner: richer, classier and better educated. By contrast, Orton was naive, provincial and a bit rough. Then, when they were arrested for defacing library books and sent to jail for six months, their relationship changed dramatically.
The working-class Orton left prison with his hatred of authority strengthened and his self-esteem intact; the middle-class Halliwell suffered a nervous breakdown. Orton went on to have West End hits with plays such as Entertaining Mr Sloane and Loot, while Halliwell failed to achieve the celebrity he so desperately craved. His jealousy of Orton’s success, and of his sexual escapades, fuelled a deep rage that exploded into murder.
Bent’s black comedy explores the domestic life of the two men, conjuring up a situation in which they resemble an old married couple. Matt Lucas plays Halliwell with a mix of ’60s camp and growing desperation. There is only one problem: I didn’t believe a word of it. By contrast, Chris New is a more vulnerable Orton than we’re used to. OK, you expect him to be cocky. It’s good to see him grappling with rejection. So if Lucas is never saturnine enough and New never charismatic enough, both are upstaged by the delightful Gwen Taylor as their landlady. With her Cockney clangers, verbal belly-flops and sharp comic timing, she gets all the biggest laughs. The main problem here is that she almost resembles one of those stock working-class characters from the bad old days.
Daniel Kramer’s production features Peter McKintosh’s claustrophobic 1960s set and a vivid soundscape that overwhelms us with a lurid evocation of Halliwell’s growing psychosis. However, the continuous screaming matches between Lucas and New soon get tedious, and the inevitable end of their relationship is almost a relief. So although Bent should be thanked for giving Halliwell more elbow room than usual, there is not enough illumination to justify this retelling of a depressingly familiar story. All the facts of Orton’s life are here, but the spirit remains somewhere else, lingering like a shadow on the stair, offstage and invisible.
Aleks Sierz
Following the death of his former partner, Matt Lucas has withdrawn from the play until futher notice
