“Prick Up Your Ears” marks the return of Matt Lucas to a London stage when he appears at the Comedy Theatre this year alongside Chris New. It will be a compelling piece of theatre that recounts the life of famous, though controversial playwright Joe Orton, whose shocking demise at the hands of his lover Kenneth Halliwell sent shockwaves through the writing world.
The play picks up Orton’s life in the early 1960s when he and Halliwell were simply two RADA graduates who aimed to turn the literary world on its head. So they lived together in a flat in Islington and for some of the play we witness how their domestic life became defined by arguments and putdowns, whilst Halliwell began to feel increasingly isolated. Their initial aim had been to take many of the literary conventions we are familiar with and subvert them, starting with the books at the local library. However, this did not go as planned.
Orton was becoming increasingly successful, making a name for himself with his plays that were full of subversive black comedy. In his day, he was becoming a modern day Oscar Wilde, but Halliwell was left at home, disheartened by his success and left with nothing to do but watch him alongside their neighbour Mrs Corden.
As they looked on, Orton’s work was taking shape, from “Entertaining Mr Sloane” to “What The Butler Saw” and “The Ruffian On The Stair”. But his success would be short-lived. Depressed and desperate, Halliwell brutally murdered him in their own home, before turning on himself and taking his own life as well.
Orton is played onstage by actor Chris New, who arrives at the Comedy on the back of his work on “The Reporter” at the Cottesloe National Theatre in 2007 and “Bent” at the Trafalgar Studios. He has also worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared on various television programmes such as “Silent Witness”.
Meanwhile, Matt Lucas plays Halliwell, making this the first time he has appeared on a London stage in seven years, when he played a leading role in “Taboo”, the Boy George musical at The Venue. Today he is best known as a comedian, appearing in the likes of “Little Britain” and “Rock Profile” alongside David Walliams, though he has also starred in “Shooting Stars”, “Bang Bang It’s Reeves & Mortimer” and “Catterick”.
“Prick Up Your Ears” is at the Comedy Theatre from Wednesday 30th September 2009 (previews from Thursday 17th September 2009) to Sunday 6th December 2009.