Theatre preview: Prick Up Your Ears, Brighton, London
Theatre Royal, Brighton, Sat; Comedy Theatre, SW1, Thu to 6 Dec
Saturday, 12 September 2009
An intriguing piece of casting for the new production of Prick Up Your Ears - written by Simon Bent and based on the diaries of Joe Orton and the John Lahr biography of the same name - which makes its way to the capital following its Brighton run. Little Britain's Matt Lucas plays Kenneth Halliwell, the jealous stay-at-home lover of Joe Orton as he came to fame in the 1960s with such plays as Entertaining Mr Sloane and Loot. The pair achieved more notoriety by obscenely defacing books from their local library in Islington, while Orton (played by Chris New) became known for frequenting public toilets in search of sex. Orton's literary fame, though, brought its own grisly reward when he was murdered with a hammer by Halliwell, who then killed himself. That said, the mood of this piece should be distinctly cheeky.
? Theatre Royal, Brighton, Sat; Comedy Theatre, SW1, Thu to 6 Dec