Joe Orton (1933-1967) was a British playwright noted for his witty, inventive and audacious black comedies which earned him the memorable sobriquet ‘the Oscar Wilde of the welfare state’. His first major success was Entertaining Mr Sloane (1964), which initially received hostile reviews and might have sunk without trace were it not for the support of the playwright Terence Rattigan, who praised Mr Sloane highly and invested £3000 in its transfer to Wyndham’s Theatre, where it prospered. By the time Orton’s next comedy Loot opened in the West End in 1966, the outrageous young playwright was the toast of London. Over the next few months he revised some of his earlier manuscripts and wrote several new ones, including a screenplay for the Beatles called Up Against It (commissioned and then rejected by their manager Brian Epstein), and his final play, the farce masterpiece What the Butler Saw. Sadly Joe Orton didn’t live to see the play enter production: in August 1967, aged just 34, he was bludgeoned to death by his long-time lover Kenneth Halliwell, who then took his own life with an overdose. Orton’s meteoric rise to fame, together with his recklessly promiscuous lifestyle and Halliwell’s delicate and declining mental health, had proved a tragic combination. The story is told with warmth, humour and compassion in the superb Alan Bennett-scripted film Prick Up Your Ears (1987), starring Gary Oldman as Orton and Alfred Molina as Halliwell.

Screen adaptations of Joe Orton’s work include: Entertaining Mr Sloane (1970), Loot (1970), What the Butler Saw (1987)

Framed Dimensions: 255mm x 302mm (Unframed: 148mm x 206mm)

Ultramarine ink on 100gsm Seawhite watercolour paper
Glazed, mounted and framed

Supplied with signed letter of authenticity from Barnaby.

Please note, this is the original artwork by Barnaby. It is unique and not a reproduction.