Prick Up Your Ears
Matt Lucas to star in new show at The Lowry
Written by Simon Bent
Directed by Daniel Kramer
The Lowry, Mon 31 August – Sat 5 September 2009
Press night: Tue 1 September, 8pm
Matt Lucas(Little Britain), Chris New (Best Newcomer nomination Evening Standard) and Gwen Taylor(Emmerdale) star in Prick Up Your Ears at The Lowry next month, prior to the West End.
Inspired by the John Lahr biography and the diaries of Joe Orton, Prick Up Your Ears tells the sensational story behind the domestic life of Kenneth Halliwell (Matt Lucas) and playwright Joe Orton (Chris New).
Set in the 1960s Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton - RADA graduates, aspiring playwrights and sometime 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 redecorating, reduced to sharing Joe’s success with their neighbour, Mrs Corden (Gwen Taylor), over tea and a slice of Battenburg.
This darkly funny and moving play imagines what really happened when, after years of creative collaboration, the door slammed shut and Kenneth was home alone.
Joe Orton’s plays include The Ruffian on the Stair, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Loot and What the Butler Saw. His novels included Head to Toe and Between us Girls.
Theatre Director Daniel Kramer’s recent work includes Prima Donna, the new opera by Rufus Wainwright, which premiered at the recent Manchester International Festival.
With the full support of the Orton Estate, including Leonie Orton, Joe Orton’s younger sister, Prick Up Your Ears is produced for the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Kim Poster for Stanhope Productions and Lee Menzies.
Posted on Thursday, 23 July 2009 under Press Theatre Press