Pride Life reviews Matt Lucas as Joe Ortion's lover
There’s a buzz of anticipation as we sit down in the stalls of the Comedy Theatre, then a bit of a giggle as we realise we’re right behind Tony Blackburn.
The laughs continue, as Prick Up Your Ears kicks off in comic style, with Matt Lucas on top sketch-show form, enacting a spoof of Mrs Dale’s Diary. As he prances around in pinny and headscarf, you wonder who could be more perfectly cast.
Lucas plays Kenneth Halliwell, the partner of gay playwrightJoe Orton, who bludgeoned him to death then committed suicide in 1967.
It’s 1962, and Orton and Halliwell are living in Noel Road, Islington. The two-act play charts the shifting nature of their relationship, with Halliwell initially the dominant partner – older, more experienced, and (Halliwell feels) possessing the lion’s share of the talent in the partnership.
Life seems a string of crazy capers for the pair, as they act out mini-dramas and conduct their now famous “interventions” on the literary property of Islington Public Library.
But when the duo is rumbled and sentenced to six months in prison, there’s a startling change of dynamics.
Orton’s jail term is grist to the mill and he resolves to do something about his writing, while Halliwell seems utterly broken by the experience.
Returning to the flat, his insecurity descends into agoraphobia and prescription drug dependency, but neither can break away.
The two trade insults, Halliwell’s mental health deteriorates, and there’s a sense of inevitable foreboding as the tragic outcome looms. It’s a study in co-dependency gone terribly wrong.
Small wonder there’s so little laughter as they take their final bows.
Matt Lucas excels in conveying the “man on the edge” aspects of Halliwell’s breakdown, with a range of leg trembles and nervous ticks, but doesn’t settle so easily into the “terrifying presence” of the “bloated spider” (as a visitor to the flat once described Halliwell).
Chris New, who debuted in Bent (winning a Best Newcomer Award), is a lively, challenging, and most provocative Joe Orton.
I particularly loved TV regular, Gwen Taylor, as ingratiating neighbour, Mrs Corden, all marigolds and floral housecoat, with inappropriate suggestions to match. This, for example, after one of Halliwell’s outbursts: “When my Mr Corden has a turn, I usually give him a toffee and that does the trick.”
The set, with its tiny dimensions and sparse furniture, is a close copy of the real Noel Road flat and its walls, more covered in Halliwell’s collages with each scene change, emphasise the claustrophobia of the relationship.
As a vision into those last years, this is, by turns, funny, dark, thought-provoking and highly recommended.
Prick Up Your Ears runs at the Comedy Theatre, Panton Street, London until 6 December.
(Following the death of Matt Lucas’s former parrtner his Understudy Michael Chadwick is currently playing the part of Kenneth Halliwell. Con O'Neill will take over the role from 22 October.)
Get tickets for Prick Up Your Ears from Pride Life and for every ticket purchased Pride Life will donate a percentage to selected gay charities
