Prick Up Your Ears

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A new play by Simon Bent. Inspired by John Lahr's biography and the diaries of Joe Orton. 1962. Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton - RADA graduates, aspiring playwrights, and sometime lovers - plot their rightful place at the centre of Londons literary scene. But after a short interlude at Her Majestys pleasure, Joe is about to become the greatest, and most notorious comic playwright since Oscar Wilde, whilst Ken stays indoors re-decorating, reduced to sharing Joes success with their neighbour, Mrs Corden, over tea and a slice of battenburg. Prick Up Your Ears - a darkly funny and moving play imagines what really happened when, after years of creative collaboration, the door slammed shut and Kenneth was home alone. It tells the sensational story behind the domestic life of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, holed up in a tiny flat in Islington, trading well-trodden insults and hilarious put-downs like any old married couple. Prick Up Your Ears opened at the Comedy Theatre, London in September 2009, with a cast including Little Britains Matt Lucas and Chris New.

Author Bio

Simon Bent studied Drama at Birmingham University and started his theatrical career as an actor. As writer-in-residence at the University of Essex, he wrote 'Evacuees' for Spectrum Theatre, Cambridge. His work includes 'Knuckle Butty', 'Wigan Kiss', 'Full Fathom Five', 'The Blood of Others', 'Goldhawk Road', 'Shelter', 'Bad Company', 'Wasted', 'Sugar Sugar' and 'Accomplices.'