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Loot. - Tour.
Playwright - Joe Orton.
Director - Stephen Wrentmore.
Designer - Monika Nisbet
Company - A co-production between Perth Theatre and The Byre Theatre.
Cast - here .
Venue - Perth Theatre,
High Street Perth Box Office 01738 621031.
Dates - 20 Sept - 1 Oct Mon -Sat at 7.45pm. Sat matinee at 2.30pm.
2005 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Seen to review at Perth Theatre 20 September 2006.
Run Time - 2 hrs 15 minutes including an interval of 15minutes.
.
Reviewers - Jan Natanson of EdinburghGuide
and Michael Paul (audience member)*.
Wonderful slap-slick and physicality.
Review by Jan Natanson of EdinburghGuide.
This is a very black, deeply subversive comedy. It was considered outrageous
when first produced in the sixties. Since then, taboos have fallen like
ninepins. Although less of a shocker these days, the play hasn't lost
its bite or sense of rebellion. It is also still very funny.
It manages - at the same time - both to send up and subvert the farce
genre, while playing it for laughs in a skilful and well choreographed
manner. Designer Monika Nisbet gives a visually stylish look to
the production, acknowledging the sixties roots of the play without making
it into something historic.
Hal, a young bank robber hides the proceeds of a robbery in the coffin
of his recently deceased mother. On his tail is Truscott - a psychopathic
detective. Fay is the nurse with a dodgy past, who "cared for "
Hal's mother. She is already eyeing up Hal's father as her next prospective
husband. The scene is set for a macabre fast moving farce involving a
set of completely amoral characters.
It is not a comfortable play. It plays with the audience and the rules
of farce and theatre. We're never allowed to forget they're characters
performing dialogue rather than real people speaking. But it's very good
dialogue that makes the audience laugh.
The terrific pace of the show has it whizzing along at a great lick almost
too fast for all the (many) great one liners to register and get the laughs
they deserve. The skilled timing of the actors gets the most out of the
comedy with some wonderful slap-slick and physicality under Stephen
Wrentmore's direction.
Tom McGovern is especially good in the role of Truscott. He manages
the difficult feat of inhabiting such an outrageous character with skill
and ease, so that the dialogue crackles and the physical farce seems to
move up a gear.
©Jan Natanson 20 September 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Michael Paul (audience member)*
HAD the words "No holds barred" appeared as Joe Orton's
epitaph, it is unlikely that many of his contemporaries, or indeed anyone
who had enjoyed his deliciously salacious plays, would have shown an ounce
of surprise. A fitting elegy perhaps, for a playwright, who was happy
to go to any lengths to expose what he saw as the hypocrisy of 60's
‘civilised’ society. Never is this more evident than in his
dark, funereal comedy, Loot.
This new production, funded jointly by the Byre Theatre in St Andrew's
and Perth Theatre, from director Stephen Wrentmore embraces
Orton's humorously amoral stance and plays it with committed abandon,
which, it has to be said, could be considered a dangerous move in an age
that increasingly appears to charge Theatre with the remit of preaching
'a message for today' - regardless of whether such a requirement
is pertinent to the piece in question. Wrentmore, thankfully, avoids being
drawn down the road of social commentary and presents Orton's words
uncut, despite the fact that in this day and age his script is, at times,
indefensible. Instead, Loot is shown for what it is: a snapshot of 60s attitudes which have, on the
whole, been relegated to the pages of history. But then this play is exactly
that, a play of its time.
Tackling Orton's favourite topics of religion, sexuality, police
brutality and the general unmasking of hypocrisy, Loot charts the adventures
of two would be bank-robbers Hal (angularly played by Derek McGhie
with just the right touch of enthusiastic naivety) and Dennis (an assured
performance from Tom Freeman). One is an undertaker's assistant,
the other the, not so, grieving bisexual son of the late Mrs McLeavy, whose corpse lies in its coffin in the family home,
awaiting burial. Having just pulled off the biggest heist of their short
criminal careers the pair must hide their ill-gotten gains before Inspector
Truscott of the Yard (a part relished by Tom McGovern who brings
a wonderful Fulton Mackay-esque quality to the role) tracks them down.
Add to this a mercenary nurse, determined to inherit not only the deceased
fortune but her widowed husband as well and you have Orton at his best,
his recidivist tendencies evident and, on the whole, bought into 100 per
cent by the young company. Gemma Burns as the seductive nurse shows
a maturity beyond her years and comic timing only matched by Arron
Usher’s brief but laugh-out-loud cameo as the uniformed Sgt Meadows.
Mr McLeavy meanwhile is stoically brought to life by David Gallacher.
Though Loot may no longer be politically correct, as long as Orton's
more outrageous comments are taken in their historical context, this production
offers a good night's entertainment.
©Michael Paul 20 September 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
*Occasionally when I receive a well written review from a audience member
I will publish it as an adjunct to our own critic's review - this is one.
- Thelma Good Theatre Editor.
Cast -
Fay - Gemma Burns.
Dennis - Tom Freeman.
McLeavy - David Gallacher.
Hal - Derek McGhie.
Truscott - Tom McGovern.
Meadows - Arron Usher.
2005 Tour Details of The Byre and Perth Theatre's
production of Loot .
Tour begins
Preview 1 Sept
at 8pm.
2 - 17 Sept at 8pm also mats on 10 & 17 Sept at 2:30pm St
Andrews Byre Theatre 01334 475000.
20 Sept - 1 Oct Mon -Sat at 7.45pm. Sat matinee at 2.30pm Perth Theatre
01738 621031.
Tour ends.
Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is
thelma@edinburghguide.com
Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted
for any errors or omissions.
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