Joe Orton’s darkly comic play borrows elements from the kitchen-sink dramas of John Osborne, but while it gestures toward issues of class and social justice, it uses bleak humour to expose cultural hypocrisy and the subversive power of sexuality. Entertaining Mr Sloane presents three generations of dysfunction. The main characters, siblings Ed and Kath, have been moulded by their bigoted, traditional father Kemp into repressed, outwardly conforming hypocrites who lead seemingly tidy lives. Yet beneath the façade, they are morally hollow figures who project their frustrated desires onto the next generation, embodied by the handsome outsider, Mr Sloane. Beneath their attempts to objectify and infantilise him, Sloane emerges as a rebellious and anarchic force who ultimately destroys the older generation. He embodies a Dionysian “stranger god,” a destabilising presence that threatens the fragile foundations of their social order. Director Nadia Fall captures both the absurdity and the menace of Orton’s work, though the revolve stage might have been deployed more effectively to heighten intimacy and draw the audience deeper into the action. Daniel Cerqueira brings a measured menace to Ed, exquisitely matched by Tamzin Outhwaite’s lascivious yet conformist Kath. Christopher Fairbank is excellent in what always seems the underdeveloped role of Kemp, while Jordan Stephens creates a Sloane who is alluring, amoral, and deeply alarming. This is a first-rate production of Orton’s intentionally unsettling, yet always uncomfortably relevant, comedy.
Rated: ★★★★
Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Ellie Kurttz
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