Joe Orton: Still entertaining, no longer dangerous

Entertaining Mr Sloane
Young Vic Theatre, London, until November 8

The premise of a young man being lusted after by a brother and sister – not to mention battering to death their old father – was considered pretty racy stuff in the sixties when Entertaining Mr Sloane was first performed. It would no doubt dismay its writer Joe Orton – a self-consciously cutting-edge playwright in his day – that such a plot now seems unremarkable and the play itself a little quaint and creaky.

Suggested Reading

Review: Brendan Gleeson, boss of the bar stool

Tim Walker

It is, however, still very funny and Daniel Cerqueira and Tamzin Outhwaite are on great form in Nadia Fall’s assured revival as the lascivious siblings. So is Christopher Fairbank as their doomed father. In his stage debut as the eponymous Mr Sloane, Jordan Stephens probably steals the show in a performance that makes the most of his character’s ambiguities and contradictions.

Peter McIntosh’s set design – with Richard Howell’s lighting – make the most of the eccentric atmosphere in the home that Mr Sloane takes up residence, and all in all it makes for a fun night at the theatre. The play should be celebrated because it helped to push the boundaries when it was first performed and challenged audiences to think. My only lament as I left the theatre was that I couldn’t think of any playwright who is now challenging the status quo in the way that Orton once did.