(Nasty Attic) Loot

Undercover Police 

This play opened on September 23rd 1966 and was written in the style of a two act English farce. It was in fact a Trojan Horse for Joe Orton’s incendiary new play called ‘Loot’. Exploded like a grenade on the stage of British theatre. The ‘Blue rinse’ crowd of elderly ladies and gents thought they were coming along to a simple ‘Who done it?’ A show with a crime to be solved and an Inspector to do so. Instead they were exposed to a dark comedy that mercilessly satirised death and the Roman Catholic Church. It followed the fortunes of Hal and Dennis who had robbed the bank next to the funeral parlour where Dennis worked. Then when the police come along asking questions. The two robbers hit upon the idea of hiding the bank notes in the mother’s coffin and placing her corpse elsewhere. This results in her body being moved around the stage with all of the delicacy of a dead deer in a sack. To add spice to the evening there’s a female serial killer nurse and a violent, somewhat psycho, corrupt Police Inspector. All this is spoken in Orton’s anarchic dialogue which shows off the friction between the classes. High brow to lowbrow. All mixed in with loads of double entendres and all kinds of sexual fluidity. All very funny and very English.