CurtainUp
CurtainUp

The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings
www.curtainup.com


HOME PAGE

SITE GUIDE

SEARCH

REVIEWS

REVIEW ARCHIVES

ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP

FEATURES

NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings


LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway

NYC Restaurants

BOOKS and CDs

OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere

QUOTES

TKTS

PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS

LETTERS TO EDITOR

FILM

LINKS

MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp London London Review
Loot


You've been a widower for three days. Have you considered a second marriage?— Nurse Fay
 Loot
Doon Mackichan as Fay, Matt Di Angelo as Hal and David Haig as Truscott">
(Photo: Tristram Kenton)
Almost fifty three years after its first performance in this version, Joe Orton's Loot returns to London's Tricycle Theatre for the holiday season. In the 1960s this play was regarded as shocking with its attack on the Catholic Church, its open discussion of homosexuality and police corruption and the irreverential treatment of the corpse of a loved one. Originally titled Funeral Games, it was heavily rewritten after a touring production, renamed Loot but savaged by the critics and closed before it got to the West End. Loot went on to successfully open in London in 1966 and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play.

Nowadays, Loot no longer shocks but it is a thoroughly good farce that you might even take a broad minded granny to. Leading the actors is the delightful David Haig cast against type as the conniving, corrupt police officer, Truscott, sucking on his tobacco pipe with his uncanny Holmes-like, but mistaken deductions. Of course overshadowing any production of Joe Orton's plays is the knowledge that the playwright died tragically young at the hands of his lover Kenneth Halliwell in August 1967.

Doon Mackichan excels as the husband hunting nurse Fay (she has eyes on husband number eight) who sets her sights on Irish widower McCleavy, played by James Hayes who conveys exactly the right amount of benign innocence. Tall and leggy Ms Mackichan wears a tiny nurse's uniform which makes her look even more rangy. Matt di Angelo is McCleavy's son Hal, and partner, in crime and more, with plausible, bisexual, sexually predatory Dennis the undertaker (Javone Prince).

David Haig as the detective Truscott is superb. Dressed in an old brown mackintosh, he talks about Spanish dance and to accompany this plays the castanets using a pair of false teeth. Pretending to be from the Water Board but with excessive powers of detention and interrogation, Truscott discounts Hal's confession to the bank job because he is looking for a more complicated explanation. When he explains that under any other political system, he would have Hal on the floor in tears, only he can have failed to notice that Hal is on the floor in tears! Haig too has a wonderfully complaining whine of delivery when acting the long suffering, self pitying, but near deranged interrogator. When Nurse Fay, who is likely to be a serial murderess getting into double figures, in a bizarre example of the pot calling the kettle black, suggests to Truscott that the police force used to be run by men of integrity, he pompously replies, "That mistake has been rectified!" While Javone Prince is a likeable young actor, his character Dennis is more affable than sinister and similarly Matt Di Angelo has less menace as Hal but this may be as much the fault of the reaction of a post Pillowman audience as down to the acting of the pair.

Anthony Lamble's set is a perfectly dismal, bow fronted living room of a suburban semi-detached house with a coffin and excessively large floral tribute wreaths. Sean Holmes' production rattles along at under two hours with an interval but somehow I feel Joe Orton would not be pleased by the audience's reaction to Loot as a toned down but beautifully written comedy. But I guess that's progress! The only point when the audience seemed to feel any distaste, smothered a laugh and shifted uncomfortably in their seats is when one of the cast alludes to the brothel run by 10 to 15 year old Pakistanis "who do it for sweets". Sex and death used to be the last no go areas. Maybe we are not yet ready to laugh at child abuse?

Another Orton play, Entertaining Mr Sloane opens at the Trafalgar Studios in January. It will feature Imelda Staunton as Kath.

Productions of Loot and other Joe Orton plays reviewed at Curtainup:
Entertaining Mr. Sloane-London
Entertaining Mr. Sloane-Off-Broadway
Loot-Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkshires
Loot-Off-Broadway
Nasty Little Secrets -Off-Broadway
Ruffian on the Staire
What the Butler Saw-Off-Broadway
Loot
Written by Joe Orton
Directed by Sean Holmes

Starring: David Haig, Matt Di Angelo, Doon Mackichan
With: James Hayes, Javone Prince, Jim Creighton
Design: Anthony Lamble
Lighting: Charles Balfour
Sound: Greg Clarke
Running time: One hour 50 minutes with an interval
Box Office: 020 7328 1000
Booking to 31st January 2009
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 18th December 2008 performance at Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn High Road, London NW6 (Tube: Kilburn)
REVIEW FEEDBACK
Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
  • I agree with the review of Loot
  • I disagree with the review of Loot
  • The review made me eager to see Loot
Click on the address link E-mail: esommer@curtainup.com
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V):

Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email and state if you'd like your comments published in our letters section . . . also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review.

London Theatre Tickets
Lion King Tickets
Billy Elliot Tickets
Mighty Boosh Tickets
Mamma Mia Tickets
We Will Rock You Tickets
Theatre Tickets
Google
 
Web    
www.curtainup.com
London Theatre Walks


Peter Ackroyd's  History of London: The Biography



London Sketchbook



tales from shakespeare
Retold by Tina Packer of Shakespeare & Co.
Click image to buy.
Our Review


©Copyright 2009,

GUCCI

|

Aluminium Chronograph

|

PEAK new fashion ladies venting air spring heighten casual sport shoes P8004E

|

Tiffany & Co Hook and Eye Ring

|

mbt shoes

|

MBT Shoes

|

Tiffany&Co Daisy 925 sterling silver rings

|

Rolex

|

Louis Vuitton

|

Affliction Boots

|

Nike Shoes

|

Nike Dunk

|

MP5 Wholesale

|

Atlanta Falcons

|

Abercrombie Pants Wholesale 002

|

Louis Vuitton

|

UGG Boots Mulberry Genuine Australia classic Tall Ugg Boots

|

GUCCI Handbags

|

UGG Boots Classic Argyle Knit Chocolate 5879

|

Louis Vuitton Business Card Holder Ebony

|

MBT Men's Kisumu Tan Sandals

|

MBT Chapa

|

ugg boots

|

MBT Kisumu 2 White Men's Sandals

|

Nike Shoes

|

Louis Vuitton Monogram Denim Messenger Bag PM m95865

|

Bailey Button Uggs

|

Sexy Costume QS0169

|

Phone Wholesale

|

Bikinis Sets

|

Wholesale

|

Car DVD Player

|

LV

|

Tourbillon

|

Tiffany tiffany replica ring

|

Superleggera J12 White

|

Tiffany

|

rolex

|

Mouse Wholesale

|

Nike Air Max 2003

|

Monogram Groom

|

GUCCI

|

Wholesale

|

Nike Air Max LTD (dark blue/white) No.372340

Elyse Sommer.
Information from this site may not be reproduced in print or online without specific permission from esommer@curtainup.com