{"id":126,"date":"2014-06-03T11:21:40","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T11:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=126"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:22:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:22:05","slug":"our-current-exhibition-joe-orton-in-1964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2014\/06\/03\/our-current-exhibition-joe-orton-in-1964\/","title":{"rendered":"Our current exhibition ‘Joe Orton in 1964’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Joe Orton\u2019s play Entertaining Mr Sloane<\/em> was performed in the West End in 1964, it provoked both virulent criticism and glowing praise \u2013 he enjoyed both in equal measure.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The critic W.A. Darlington was particularly disgusted.\u00a0 \u2018Not for a long time have I disliked a play so much \u2026\u2019 he wrote.\u00a0 \u2018I feel as if snakes had been writhing round my feet.\u2019<\/p>\n

Orton delighted in collecting press clippings and assembling a scrapbook, which is perhaps one of the star exhibits in the current exhibition in the Library to mark the 50th anniversary of Sloane<\/em>, \u2018Joe Orton in 1964\u2019.\u00a0 Orton underlined Darlington\u2019s last comment, which he clearly enjoyed.\u00a0 Orton gleefully joined in the public debate about his plays himself, corresponding under the pseudonym of Edna Welthorpe.\u00a0 \u2018I \u2026 was nauseated by this endless parade of mental and physical perversion,\u2019 Edna wrote to The Daily Telegraph<\/em>.\u00a0 \u2018And to be told that such a disgusting piece of filth now passes for humour!\u2019
\nOrton loved nothing more than observing the general public going about their business \u2013 on buses, in the street, in libraries, in the theatre watching his own plays.\u00a0 \u2018I usually mingle with the audience,\u2019 he commented.<\/p>\n

\"Collage<\/a>

Collage from the scrapbook compiled by Orton, in all likelihood together with Halliwell<\/p><\/div>\n

By Orton\u2019s own admission, one particular episode in 1962 had played a crucial role in his development as a writer.\u00a0 On 5 May, Orton and his partner Halliwell were arrested for the theft and defacement of books from Islington Public Libraries and sentenced to 6 months in prison.\u00a0 Photos of some of the defaced book covers feature in our exhibition.\u00a0 \u2018Libraries might as well not exist; they\u2019ve got endless shelves for rubbish and hardly any space for good books \u2026\u2019 said Orton, by way of explaining his motive.\u00a0 \u2018I did things like pasting a picture of a female nude over a book of etiquette \u2026\u2019 he went on. \u2018I discovered that Gollancz books had blank yellow flaps and I used to type false blurbs on the insides.\u00a0 My blurbs were mildly obscene.\u00a0 Even at the trial they said they were only mildly obscene \u2026 I used to stand in corners after I\u2019d smuggled the doctored books back \u2026 and then watch people read them.\u00a0 It was very funny, very interesting.\u2019\u00a0 His delight in people\u2019s reactions to the books was surely pivotal to Orton\u2019s fascination with this pastime.
\n\u2018I tried writing before I went in the nick \u2026 but it was no good,\u2019 Orton famously said of his time in prison.\u00a0 \u2018Being in the nick \u2026 brought detachment to my writing.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t involved any more and it suddenly worked.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"'Aunt<\/a>

‘Aunt Edna Revolt Rocks the World’ from the scrapbook, a reference to ‘watchdog of public morals’ Edna Welthorpe, one of the pseudonyms used by Orton.<\/p><\/div>\n

John Lahr, Orton\u2019s biographer, observed that, in Orton\u2019s hands, farce becomes subversive, \u2018a serious statement about society \u2026 Everything that is painful and horrible is there for the audience to see and know and the funny thing is that we don\u2019t see it and don\u2019t know it.\u2019\u00a0 Orton watched his audiences closely and was very aware of this tendency in them, as he told an interviewer:\u00a0 \u2018\u2026 they say, \u201cWell, these are totally unbelievable characters\u201d \u2026 \u201cI don\u2019t understand what you are making a joke about.\u201d\u00a0 Even if they may be living exactly the same way at home themselves.\u2019
\nThe exhibition, using correspondence, scripts, press cuttings and photographs from the Archive, runs until 31 August 2014.\u00a0 You can find the Special Collections display case in the basement of the David Wilson Library.\u00a0 Entry to the library is free but controlled, so if you are not a student or member of University staff, please ask to be let through the barrier.\u00a0 Details of staffed opening hours are available on the library website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Joe Orton\u2019s play Entertaining Mr Sloane was performed in the West End in 1964, it provoked both virulent criticism and glowing praise \u2013 he enjoyed both in equal measure.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The critic W.A. Darlington was particularly disgusted.\u00a0 \u2018Not for a long time have I disliked a play so much \u2026\u2019 he wrote.\u00a0 \u2018I feel as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}