In , a bizarre court case would land both men in prison - and ultimately provide the spark Orton needed to break though as a playwright. The pair had spent more than a year altering library books with garish collages and occasionally obscene text , the targets ranging from biographies and volumes of Shakespeare to novels they viewed as low quality.
Their furtive campaign was eventually rumbled by zealous library staff and they were imprisoned for six months for theft and malicious damage, after a trial that attracted tabloid publicity.
Orton believed the severity of the sentence was "because we were queers". Having gained a degree of separation from Halliwell, after his release Orton began to find success, with The Ruffian on the Stair broadcast on BBC radio in Entertaining Mr Sloane, a black comedy that touched on homosexuality and hypocrisy, was widely praised on its release, also in , including by theatre heavyweights such as Terence Rattigan and Tennessee Williams. The actor Dudley Sutton , who was part of the original cast, said he enjoyed being in a play "that was having a go at the established view of things", and praised Orton's sensitivity as a writer.
Orton's hallmarks as a playwright were black humour, deliberate bad taste, surreal situations and attacks on hypocrisy. His subversive nature helped him to stand out from his peers, with The Times describing Entertaining Mr Sloane as making "the blood boil more than any other British play in the last 10 years".
For Bernard Greaves, a Cambridge architecture student in the mids, Orton's clear-eyed portrayal of aspects of contemporary gay life struck a chord. For the playwright's sister, Orton's work helped pave the way for other gay men to be more confident in their sexuality.
Just weeks before his death, the Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalised private homosexual acts between gay men over the age of 21, was granted royal assent. However, with the age limit higher than that for heterosexual sex, and with other restrictions still in place, Ms Orton-Barnett says her brother was not a supporter of the bill.
Dr Parker agrees, adding that Orton's love of subversion underpins his plays and personality. Cranham - who said appearing in The Ruffian on the Stair aged only 19 "completely changed everything for me" - played Hal in the West End production of Loot, Orton's satire on the Catholic Church and attitudes to death. Kenneth Williams had starred in the play's initial, unsuccessful, run in Cambridge the year before. Orton's star continued to rise after his death, with his final play What the Butler Saw - a farce that turns its guns on power and a psychiatric profession that treated homosexuality as a mental illness - becoming a stage success although Up Against It, a film written for The Beatles, never reached the screen.
Joe Orten's life came to a tragic end when he was just 34 years old after boyfriend Kenneth Halliwell discovered he had been cheating on him. Halliwell went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, with dreams of becoming a famous actor and writer.
He was jailed in for theft and defacement of public library books, spending six months in HM Prison Ford in Sussex. Towards the end of his life, Halliwell turned to drugs - taking anti-depressants as he struggled to cope with his boyfriend's rise in fame. During their time together, the pair wrote several novels including The Boy Hairdresser, which were not published until after their deaths. In general terms, in the event of a double death with cross-wills, the estate would go, in law, to the person who died last, and thereafter to his next of kin.
It is also the legal position that a murderer may not inherit the property of his victim, if he is found to be sane at the time of the crime. If he is found to be not of sound mind at the time of the crime, he may inherit. The St Pancras deputy coroner, Dr J. Burton, took less than three minutes to open the inquest and adjourn it until September 4. The doctor who was to give medical evidence was abroad on holiday.
Only evidence of identification was given. Mr Orton, a small man in a navy blue suit and an RAF blue shirt, left the witness box in a matter of seconds. She, too, left the box within seconds. Service While the legal position has still to be established, there will be a secular funeral service for Mr Orton at Golders Green Crematorium on Friday. Mr Harold Pinter, the playwright, and Mr Donald Pleasence, the actor, will speak in an informal order of service.
A number of snippets, which may or may not be capable of performance.
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