false 133713 3 1 362712 0802132154 9780802132154 15 <![CDATA[The Complete Plays: The Ruffian on the Stair, Entertaining Mr. Sloan, the Good and Faithful Servant, Loot, the Erpingham Camp, Funeral Games, What the Butler Saw]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174107272m/362712.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174107272s/362712.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/362712.The_Complete_Plays_The_Ruffian_on_the_Stair_Entertaining_Mr_Sloan_the_Good_and_Faithful_Servant_Loot_the_Erpingham_Camp_Funeral_Games_What_the_Butler_Saw 4.27 123 133713 3.99 348 38 1976 228624 0306807335 9780306807336 4 <![CDATA[The Orton Diaries: Including the Correspondence of Edna Welthorpe and Others]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172889055m/228624.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172889055s/228624.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228624.The_Orton_Diaries_Including_the_Correspondence_of_Edna_Welthorpe_and_Others 4.12 56 and happy is surely going against nature.” When Joe Orton (1933–1967) wrote those words in his diary in May 1967, he was being hailed as the greatest comic playwright since Oscar Wilde for his darkly hilarious Entertaining Mr. Sloane and the farce hit Loot, and was completing What the Butler Saw; but less than three months later, his longtime companion, Kenneth Halliwell, smashed in Orton’s skull with a hammer before killing himself. The Orton Diaries, written during his last eight months, chronicle in a remarkably candid style his outrageously unfettered life: his literary success, capped by an Evening Standard Award and overtures from the Beatles; his sexual escapades—at his mother's funeral, with a dwarf in Brighton, and, extensively, in Tangiers; and the breakdown of his sixteen-year "marriage" to Halliwell, the relationship that transformed and destroyed him. Edited with a superb introduction by John Lahr, The Orton Diaries is his crowning achievement.</div>]]> 133713 3.99 348 38 36139 4.13 245 36 1986 382803 0394173260 9780394173269 3 <![CDATA[What the Butler Saw [a Play]]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/382803.What_the_Butler_Saw_a_Play_ 3.91 33 133713 3.99 348 38 1969 979030 0413567605 9780413567604 3 <![CDATA[Loot: Methuen Student Edition]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179960624m/979030.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179960624s/979030.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/979030.Loot_Methuen_Student_Edition 3.61 33 "It's Oscar Wilde crossed with Monty Python."-USA Today

Loot is a wild parody of detective fiction, adding the blackest farce and jabs at established ideas on death, the police, religion, and justice.

This is the student edition of Joe Orton's classic farce, first produced in London in 1966. It offers a plot summary, full commentary, character notes, and questions for study, along with a chronology and bibliography.

]]> 133713 3.99 348 38 1967 1103629 0413413403 9780413413406 1 <![CDATA[Entertaining Mr. Sloane]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181012367m/1103629.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181012367s/1103629.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1103629.Entertaining_Mr_Sloane 3.57 23 133713 3.99 348 38 2001 228625 0306808366 9780306808364 2 <![CDATA[Head to Toe: A Novel & Up Against It: A Screenplay for the Beatles]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172889055m/228625.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172889055s/228625.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228625.Head_to_Toe_A_Novel_Up_Against_It_A_Screenplay_for_the_Beatles 3.90 10 Head to Toe is the saga of Gombold, who strays onto the head of a creature some hundred miles high and begins making his way through the giant's nether regions and on toward his toes. En route, he falls into the clutches of a dominating and gender-bending policewoman; finds himself in an assassination squad whose target is the prime minister; and finally enlists in an apocalyptic war between the Left and Right Buttocks. Up Against It is a screenplay commissioned by the Beatles in 1967, in which, as Orton described it, "The boys have been caught in flagrante, become involved in dubious political activity, dressed as women, committed murder, been put in prison, and committed adultery." The two works, which mirror each other in many ways, combine elements of satire, eroticism, and nightmare with Orton's characteristic glee.</div>]]> 133713 3.99 348 38 1998 382810 0416073905 9780416073904 1 <![CDATA[Funeral Games]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/382810.Funeral_Games 3.83 6 133713 3.99 348 38 1970 2274679 0749390298 9780749390297 2 <![CDATA[Head to Toe]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2274679.Head_to_Toe 2.83 6 133713 3.99 348 38 1987 905285 0802136443 9780802136442 0 <![CDATA[Between Us Girls: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179339715m/905285.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179339715s/905285.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/905285.Between_Us_Girls_A_Novel 3.33 3 133713 3.99 348 38 1998 382808 0802136281 9780802136282 0 <![CDATA[Visitors and Fred and Madge]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174338618m/382808.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174338618s/382808.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/382808.Visitors_and_Fred_and_Madge 3.00 2 Loot and What the Butler Saw. Today, with Orton's work garnering increasing attention and recognition in the wake of the 1987 feature film about his life, Prick Up Your Ears, his early writing has still remained obscure. Now the publication of these two recently discovered plays, written immediately before his breakthrough successes, reveals a key moment in his development as a dramatist. Fred & Madge, Orton's first play, is an absurdist drama, fraught with social critique and sexual innuendo. It's the story of a married couple whose respective jobs are the Sisyphean task of rolling boulders uphill and sieving water all day long, until they discover they are inhabiting a play about themselves. The Visitors is a brutally realistic rendering of a dying man who is visited in the hospital by his middle-aged daughter, while the attending nurses spend more time fighting than caring for their patients. Written in 1961, it shows the beginnings of the mature voice that would come to fruition in his next projects, The Ruffian on the Stair and Entertaining Mr. Sloane, which made his name in London and the world.</div>]]> 133713 3.99 348 38 1998