Joe & Ken

Directed by AL Fenderico

Joe & Ken

Devised by John Dunne

60’s gay playwright, Joe Orton and his partner Kenneth Halliwell got their first success writing obscene blurbs in books stolen from their local Islington Library, landing them both a spell in prison. It was widely regarded that it was because they were gay, that they received such harsh punishment. It was after this spell in prison that Joe Orton got his big break with his radio play ‘The Ruffian on the Stair’.

Joe or John Kingsley Orton as he was known back at home in Leicester, took up amateur dramatics early, sparking a desire to leave his suffocating childhood home and make it as an actor in London. He got into the Royal Academy, and it was here that he met the man that would be his partner and mentor, Kenneth Halliwell, an educated and refined intellectual.

With the help of his agent Peggy Ramsay and then famous producer Peter Willes, he went on to stage later hit plays; ‘Loot’ ‘Entertaining Mr Sloane’ and ‘What the Butler Saw in London’s West End.

Joe Ortons plays highlight the sexual inequality suffered by the gay men in society. He was an activist playwright. 1950’s Britain was a brutal place if you were a gay man, but it didn’t stop Joe Orton, public toilets became the only place to meet men and Joe frequented them often. After Kenneth’s father committed suicide, he bought a flat in Noel Road, Islington, offering the couple some stability and hoping that this would kerb Joe’s promiscuity, but it only exacerbated it.

 Joe had gone full circle, moving from a suffocating family and into a suffocating relationship. Sex for Orton became a coping mechanism for the increasing fame and frustrations felt at home in the company of Kenneth’s growing resentment of his success and his lifestyle.

Full of poignancy and humour, ‘Joe & Ken’ explores the couples increasing frustrations, heartaches, and jealousies, first from their flat in Islington and later at an apartment in Tangiers.

“Funny, sharp and absorbing” 
The Stage

“The chemistry between the actors – Craig Myles who plays cheeky chappy Orton and Tino Orsini who plays Halliwell – is just fabulous. This is informed storytelling and well worth a view.”
Stephen Vowles – BOYZ Magazine. 

“It is a remarkable piece of theatre.” 
Aline Waites

Mon 7 Aug 2023, 8:00PM
Tue 8 Aug 2023, 8:00PM
Wed 9 Aug 2023, 8:00PM

Tickets: £10.00 / £8.00