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Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton

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I first became interested in Joe Orton about 10 years ago, whilst still at school. A working class playwright brutally murdered in his prime by his gay, psychotic lover is normally the stuff soap operas are made of. In Orton's case, though, it actually happened. John Lahr's handling of Orton's life is both thorough, yet sensitive to Orton's surviving relatives. He uses anecdotes from those people who knew Halliwell and Otron, plus he often quotes from Orton's own diaries, (which can be bought separately under the rather unimaginative title 'The Orton Diaries'), and Kenneth Williams (of Carry-On fame) diaries. Lahr begins this biography well by beginning from just before Orton moves to London to attend R.A.D.A (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts), giving us glimpses of Orton's working class Leicester background. Taking us on the short journey that was Orton's life, we are shown the struggling drama student coming to terms with his lack of education by hooking up with Kenneth Halliwell, (who also attended R.A.D.A.). Lahr goes on to show us how the relationship between the two men altered from one whereby Halliwell was in charge, to a time when Orton became a successful playwright whilst Halliwell became depressed and insanely jealous. Orton's own sexual promiscuity plus his inability to give credit to Halliwell's massive contribution to Orton's own success in the field of literature all played a part in his gruesome demise at the hands of a demented Halliwell, all of which is covered in depth in Lahr's book. If Lahr is to be believed, Orton was a selfish, self-centred oath, (something that can also be detected in his plays). What does become clear from the book is this; without Halliwell, there would have been no Orton.

I would strongly advise people to read the book before seeing the film version (with Gary Oldman playing Orton)of the same name.

This biography indeed has a powerful, engaging start as it first presents the murder of Joe Orton and the causes that lead to it, then goes back to explore his bleak upbringing and the fascinating pre-published period he spent with his companion (they were trying to avoid work at all costs while writing much-rejected fiction and mutilating library books). However, once Lahr begins covering Joe The Playwright, the book frankly gets slow, boring, and exhaustive. The biography turns into a literary criticism, as Lahr spends many a page giving his own interpretation and biased opinions on Orton's works. He does this with each and every play. This has no place in the story of his life and should've been put in The Complete Plays where it would've been appropriate.

Lahr also feels the need to cover the drudgery of his subject's professional dealings at a snail's pace. All of this is somewhat understandable, since Lahr admitted in the foreword that informaiton on Orton was downright scarce during certain periods, but IMO, he should've just shortened the book as a result because we all know good things come in small packages, less is sometimes more... it's quality not quantity... you get my point.

I recommend this book if only for the first half. Though the movie isn't as rich (as it's pressed for time) it moves along in a satisfying pace and covers all the major events in an OBJECTIVE way. I advise curious people to see the movie, hardcore fans may want to invest in the book.

Prick Up Your Ears is a biography of Joe Orton, who achieved a measure of fame in Britain and the US for his plays such as "What the Butler Saw." Orton, who was gay, got much of his literary education from his lover. The lover, who went from being the dominant person in the relationship to the lesser when Orton became famous, eventually developed such a rage against Orton that he murdered him and then killed himself.

Orton's plays are often funny, but not deep. They depend on the breaking of social and sexual conventions. Now that those conventions have largely been broken anyhow, Orton's plays seem less shocking than they were at the time. Orton liked to be thought of as another Harold Pinter, but somewhat to his horror he found that his admirers included conventional middlebrow playwrights of the day. In fact, Orton's plays do have more in common with the works of these more conventional writer than with Pinter. Perhaps Orton's greatest comic invention were his letters to the editor of various British publications, always written under a false name and always espousing an absurdely conservative point of view. Orton, whether he admitted it or not, needed these conservatives for his plays to work.

Lahr's biography is well researched, and is likely to remain the definitive biography of Orton. Lahr himself has a fluid writing style, and the intelligence to know what to put in and what to leave out. Thus, he avoids swamping the reader with meaningless details as do many American biographers.

Joe Orton was an original, no getting around it. His plays, especially "Entertaining Mr. Sloan," "Loot" and "What the Butler Saw" are considered classics of the blackest form of comedy. He enjoyed shocking people, while always maintaining that his characters and the situations he places them in were grounded in reality.

This is a theatrical bio as bold and brash as its subject. Lahr has done a thorough job of exposing this most controversial of playwrights. Joe was a sexual compulsive, an in-your-face homosexual who enjoyed sex with strangers in public places. He also loved to brag about his exploits, never skimping on a detail.

Just when "things" were finally coming together for Orton professionally, things were beginning to unravel for his companion Kenneth Halliwell, who brutally murdered Orton in August 1967. Some would say his rude death befit how he lived the rest of his life. I think that would be judging Joe too harshly. Perhaps he would have been a flash-in-the-pan or as lasting and popular as Stoppard. We'll never know. That's the tragedy. Good job Lahr.

I love a good biography, and this one is GREAT! John Lahr writes brisk, delighfully breezy, and information-saturated biographies. He has another great one of his Father - Bert Lahr - the cowardly lion in Wizard of Oz. "Prick up your Ears"...is a page turner that kept me riveted as I came to an appreciation of the latter 60's London gay scene, and the Svengali/Frankenstein-like relationship between Orton and his 16-year lover, Ken Halliwell. Halliwell brutally murdered Orton in a frenzy of jealously and sheer madness in 1967, at Orton's peak of fame. I knew nothing of Joe Orton or his plays until I caught the last hour of the movie by the same title on BBC America last month, which starred Gary Oldman. The book is much better than the movie, in that it gives you all the "behind-the-scenes" information the movie does not have time to elaborate upon. Lahr treats Orton's horrible sex-addiction sensitively, and illustrates the magnitude of his genius and vision in a very articulate manner. Though Halliwell's murder/suicide was tragic for both men, Lahr helps the reader understand the reasons which lead to his fatal mistake, without excusing it by tapping the support of many of their old friends, living family, and aquaintences. Who knows, if only Orton had acknowledged Halliwell's contributions to his work, perhaps they'd both be with us today...

I have an unwritten rule which compels me to finish every book I open. LiveJournal readers know of two of my book reviews, pertaining to an alive Elvis and lesbian masochists, which were chores to get through. However, regardless of a book's length, how boring it is or how far it is from my first impression of what it might be like, I trudge through it, dreading every minute. I always give these books the chance that they might have some redeeming quality which makes the first couple hundred pages worthwhile to stick it out.

In John Lahr's Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton, there was no such redemption. After rubbing the shell of this nut for 361 pages I thought I would be treated to a hidden pecan, but the shell was empty. I started this book on 17 August; that's over three weeks ago--and this book is only 361 pages. This book was the most boring read of nonfiction I have encountered in twenty years. Barring three exceptions, I fell asleep every time I sat down to read it. If I didn't believe in my own immortality, I would be worried about wasting my limited life time reading this junk.

I am a big Beatles fan, and I came across the name Joe Orton when I learned that he was approached to write the screenplay for the Beatles' third movie (after "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!"). This never came to pass. When his script for "Up Against It" was returned, Orton wrote:

"No explanation why. No criticism of the script. And apparently, Brian Epstein has no comment to make either. F*** them."

Lahr had unrestricted access to Orton's diaries and quotes from them at length. In the Beatles passages, being allowed into the Fab Four's "inner circle" is quite a hoot to read. When Orton meets Brian Epstein and Paul McCartney for the first time, he writes:

"'The only thing I get from the theatre,' Paul M. said, 'is a sore arse.' He said "Loot" [an Orton play] was the only play he hadn't wanted to leave before the end. ... We talked of tattoos. And after one or two veiled references, marijuana."

Shortly after his Beatles script was rejected, Orton was killed by his common-law husband in the summer of 1967 in a murder-suicide. Lahr talks about this tragedy at the beginning of the book, and goes to great lengths to analyze the psyche of Orton's partner and what drove him to commit murder and suicide. The psychoanalysis is brought up again at the end of the book. Excluding the psych-talk and Beatles anecdotes, the bulk of what fills these two covers is a boring critique of each of Orton's plays. If one hasn't seen these works on stage, one is left in the dark. I couldn't follow the plotlines; the exhaustive dialogue seemed more out of context than having any pertinence to points Lahr intended to make about the playwright; and the general flow was at a snail's pace. The critiques go on and on... I could only get through ten pages in an hour. So much was quoted from Orton's plays and his own diaries, and since all the cited sections were reproduced in a minuscule font, it made poor eyes like mine very tired. I really dreaded seeing more lines of dialogue reproduced as evidence of Orton's personality or reflections of what he was going through domestically.

Orton's diaries were more interesting, especially his tales of trolling for anonymous sex in the public toilets of London and around the world. Orton held back nothing in his own diaries, and he probably would have loved knowing that people are now reading about his sexual escapades. I make this remark because Orton loved to talk loudly about lascivious topics in very public places. He would write about how he and friends would sit in an upscale restaurant and during a crowded lunchtime they would all talk oblivious to everyone around them about a (fictional) gay orgy. He and his friends got their kicks out of other people's shocked reactions. He was just like a little boy in his enthusiastic retelling of how people shuddered in horror at the tales he would tell. This carried over into his plays, as his subject matter often found him in hot water with censors as well as his paying audience.

From beginning to end you will be completely immersed in Orton's life. I didn't want the book to end. Beautifully written by John Lahr. Gives ample time to Kenneth Halliwell's life and character, as well. I recommend reading the complete works of Joe Orton ahead of time, to fully appreciate this biography.

This is the worst "biography" I've ever read. So much that it took me more than a year to complete.

It's just a succession of VERY long-winded, very boring critiques of each of the writer's plays. Biographical facts are only half-heartedly tacked on at the start, and reading them I came to find out that I didn't even like Orton and his "friend" and felt they got the exact fates they deserved.

This book was so stagnant and such a frustrating read that I actually began to hate the author! I wish I had NEVER ordered it.