This production began performances on 17th September and closed on 31st December 2009.
1962. Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton - RADA graduates, aspiring playwrights, and sometimes lovers - plot their rightful place at the centre of London's literary scene whilst engaged in a secret crusade to "improve" the local library books, all in the worst possible taste of course, and acting out their own versions of popular radio dramas... with an extra dash of innuendo. But after a short interlude at Her Majesty's pleasure, Joe is about to become the greatest, and most notorious comic playwright since Oscar Wilde, whilst Ken stays indoors re-decorating, reduced to sharing Joe's success with their neighbour, Mrs Corden, over tea and a slice of battenburg.
Prick Up Your Ears is a darkly funny and moving play that imagines what really happened when, after years of creative collaboration, the door slammed shut and Kenneth was home alone. It tells the sensational story behind the domestic life of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, holed up in a tiny flat in Islington, trading well-trodden insults and hilarious put-downs like any old married couple.
CAST
CON O'NEILL
CHRIS NEW
GWEN TAYLOR
CREATIVES
DANIEL KRAMER – Director
PETER MCKINTOSH – Designer
PETER MUMFORD – Lighting Designer
GARETH OWEN – Sound Designer