Word: orton
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...speech is vintage Rudnick -- a party wine with a bouquet of sentiment and the kick of rude truth. To the tart social wit of gay writers from Oscar Wilde to Joe Orton he adds irrepressible high spirits -- a tonic when so much of literature has the terminal glums. This Renaissance jester is a yea-sayer, a missionary for joy. "Usually when I'm asked why I write," says Rudnick, 35, "I reply, 'To avoid a day job.' But the truth is that there are people in real life I want to honor. It's easy to write about despair...
Harlan does an excellent job of portraying Truscott as a sort of lunatic master of ceremonies, the most thoroughly ruthless character in Orton's thoroughly ruthless world. Harlan's intense Truscott, at once menacing and ridiculous, is an appropriate blend of Sherlock Holmes, a Keystone Kop and Adolf Hitler. His quick-paced style works especially well in some of the play's wittiest exchanges, such as when members of the household find Truscott snooping through their belongings...
Unfortunately, not all of Orton's humor receives such able delivery. The cast's distracting attempts at British accents and the dialogue's overall slow pace muddle too many of the script's best effects...
...production also indulges in a little corny melodrama that dull Loot's sharp tone. "Loot is a serious play," Orton wrote of his farce . He insisted that his outrageous lines be delivered with absolute seriousness; only this could make them truly humorous commentaries on a hypocritical society...
These flaws are not fatal, but they do detract from some of the skilled performance and the power of the script. Entertaining, even hysterical in places this production of Loot never quite achieve the deeply bitter effect of Orton's play...