Play Review: Entertaining Mr. Sloane

Entertaining Mr Sloane was first premiered in the West End of London in 1964. It was written by Joe Orton. The original play Is set in a house next to a rubbish dump. My monologue is specifically set in a front room of a house. To display to the audience that my monologue was set in a front room I bought a coach, a lamp and some flowers to give it a homely feel, something the audience can familiarise with and to create that intimate warm feeling of a home although something terrible had just taken place. To present my monologue I have stayed true to the original layout of the set.
It centralises around four main characters, Sloane who is described as a young good looking psychopath, Kath who is Sloan’s landlady, Ed, who is Kath gay brother & Kemp who is Ed & Kaths father. I have chosen to perform Sloane’s monologue because I found the play very interesting because it breaks away from the social norms of the time in the sense that it explores homosexuality a thing which at a time in London to practice homosexuality was punishable by serving custodial sentence. I believe Ortons own life experiences influenced him heavily to write this book because looking into Ortons life you begin to see a lot of similarities with that of Mr Sloane. For example Ed who I believe represents Orton now due to his mannerisms in the sense that as soon a she met Mr Sloane he was all over him, so to speak, and looking into Ortons life you see that he was very similar in his love life how he approached lovers, he wasn’t know to believe in monogamy. Also looking into Ortons life you see that Ortons Life partner, Kenneth Halliwell, was often fighting for Orton affections from other men. A theme which is also explored in Sloane with both brother and sister fighting for the affections of one man and then it resulting in them agreeing to ‘share’ him. The bit my monologue comes in at is a very disturbing and eye opening bit where we see Sloane psychotic side where he kicks Kemp to death.