Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,7, TU Dortmund, language: English, abstract: In Britain homosexuals had a hard time until the Sexual Offences (No. 2) Act was passed in 1967. They had to be afraid of being caught and imprisoned. Nonetheless, many gay men stuck to their love for other men and satisfied their desires as heterosexuals satisfied theirs. One man even dared to deal with the topic (homo-)sexuality openly. This man was Joe Orton, a gay playwright, who became famous in 1963. In 1967 he wrote a play - Entertaining Mr. Sloane. This paper focuses on that play and tries to answer the question: What role does the aspect of sexuality play in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane? The introduction is followed by an overview of Joe Orton's life in which the main stages from his birth to his early death are mentioned and described. In chapter three the play is put into its historical context. There, I will inform about the reasons why homosexuality was forbidden in England and how the Sexual Offences (No. 2) Act came about. The next chapter deals with the three main characters of the play, starting with Mr. Sloane. The second person to be characterized is Kath and the third is her brother Ed. Chapter six focuses on the aspect of sexuality in Orton's play. The former chapters, however, are necessary to understand in what circumstances Orton lived and wrote and in which way the protagonists' characters are vital for answering the guiding question. The sixth chapter is followed by a conclusion on the aspect of sexuality in Entertaining Mr. Sloane. A personal assessment rounds this seminar paper off. Having given a short overview of this essay, I will now start with the synopsis of Joe Orton's life. It is important for the answer of the guiding question, because his life reveals some interesting aspects which are crucial to the way he wrote. Bigsby argues in his book Joe Orton that his sexual identity is crucial to his a

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,7, TU Dortmund, language: English, abstract: In Britain homosexuals had a hard time until the Sexual Offences (No. 2) Act was passed in 1967. They had to be afraid of being caught and imprisoned. Nonetheless, many gay men stuck to their love for other men and satisfied their desires as heterosexuals satisfied theirs. One man even dared to deal with the topic (homo-)sexuality openly. This man was Joe Orton, a gay playwright, who became famous in 1963. In 1967 he wrote a play – Entertaining Mr. Sloane. This paper focuses on that play and tries to answer the question: What role does the aspect of sexuality play in Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr. Sloane? The introduction is followed by an overview of Joe Orton’s life in which the main stages from his birth to his early death are mentioned and described. In chapter three the play is put into its historical context. There, I will inform about the reasons why homosexuality was forbidden in England and how the Sexual Offences (No. 2) Act came about. The next chapter deals with the three main characters of the play, starting with Mr. Sloane. The second person to be characterized is Kath and the third is her brother Ed. Chapter six focuses on the aspect of sexuality in Orton’s play. The former chapters, however, are necessary to understand in what circumstances Orton lived and wrote and in which way the protagonists’ characters are vital for answering the guiding question. The sixth chapter is followed by a conclusion on the aspect of sexuality in Entertaining Mr. Sloane. A personal assessment rounds this seminar paper off. Having given a short overview of this essay, I will now start with the synopsis of Joe Orton’s life. It is important for the answer of the guiding question, because his life reveals some interesting aspects which are crucial to the way he wrote. Bigsby argues in his book Joe Orton that his sexual identity is crucial to his art.

Published fifty years after the premiere of Entertaining Mr Sloane in 1964, and with a new introduction, this anniversary edition offers an opportunity to reappraise Joe Orton's reputation, and the status of his first major play, from a twenty-first century perspective. When it first appeared in the Swinging Sixties, Orton's satire on social and sexual hypocrisy both scandalized and delighted audiences. Its mix of sexuality and violence was explosive. Within a year, the play was being performed around the world and went on to be adapted for film and television, establishing Orton as a major voice and this play as one of the most ground-breaking of the century. This anniversary edition features previously unpublished material from the Joe Orton Archive, an interview with director Nick Bagnall, and an introduction by Emma Parker, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Leicester.

A Study Guide for Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr. Sloane," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

"Joe Orton's last play, What the Butler Saw, will live to be accepted as a comedy classic of English literature" (Sunday Telegraph) The chase is on in this breakneck comedy of licensed insanity, from the moment when Dr Prentice, a psychoanalyst interviewing a prospective secretary, instructs her to undress. The plot of What the Butler Saw contains enough twists and turns, mishaps and changes of fortune, coincidences and lunatic logic to furnish three or four conventional comedies. But however the six characters in search of a plot lose the thread of the action - their wits or their clothes - their verbal self-possession never deserts them. Hailed as a modern comedy every bit as good as Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Orton's play is regularly produced, read and studied. What the Butler Saw was Orton's final play."He is the Oscar Wilde of Welfare State gentility" (Observer)

A black farce masterpiece, Loot follows the fortunes of two young thieves, Hal and Dennis. Dennis is a hearse driver for an undertaker. They have robbed the bank next door to the funeral parlour and have returned to Hal's home to hide-out with the loot. Hal's mother has just died and the pair put the money in her coffin, hiding the body elsewhere in the house. With the arrival of Inspector Truscott, the thickened plot turns topsy-turvy. Playing with all the conventions of popular farce, Orton creates a world gone mad and examines in detail English attitudes at mid-century. The play has been called a Freudian nightmare, which sports with superstitions about death - and life. It is regularly produced in professional and amateur productions. First produced in London in 1966, Loot was hailed as "the most genuinely quick-witted, pungent and sprightly entertainment by a new, young British playwright for a decade" (Sunday Telegraph). The Student Edition offers a plot summary, full commentary, character notes and questions for study, besides a chronology and bibliography.