Editing Joe Orton (section)

===''Loot''===
Orton's next performed work was [[Loot (play)|''Loot'']]. The first draft was written from June to October 1964 and was called ''Funeral Games'', a title Orton dropped at Halliwell's suggestion but later reused. The play is a wild parody of [[detective fiction]], adding the [[black comedy|blackest]] [[farce]] and jabs at established ideas on death, the police, religion, and justice. Orton offered the play to Codron in October 1964 and it underwent sweeping rewrites before it was judged fit for the West End.

Codron had manoeuvred Orton into meeting his colleague [[Kenneth Williams]] in August 1964.{{efn|In the summer of 1966, Orton and Halliwell would take Williams on holiday, to [[Tangiers]] in Morocco, which in the 1960s was a haven for gay men.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/any-face-you-want-except-the-real-one-1157245.html |title=Any face you want, except the real one |last=Gilbert |first=Gerard |date=24 May 1998 |publisher=independent.co.uk |access-date=28 June 2023}}</ref>}} Orton reworked ''Loot'' with Williams in mind for Truscott. His other inspiration for the role was DS [[Harold Challenor]]. With the success of ''Sloane'', ''Loot'' was hurried into [[pre-production]] despite its flaws. Rehearsals began in January 1965, with plans for a six-week tour culminating in a West End debut. The play opened in [[Cambridge]] on 1 February to scathing reviews.

Orton, disagreeing with director [[Peter Wood (director)|Peter Wood]] over the plot, produced 133 pages of new material to replace, or add to, the original 90. But the play received poor reviews in [[Brighton]], [[Oxford]], [[Bournemouth]], [[Manchester]], and finally [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]] in mid-March. Discouraged, Orton and Halliwell went on an 80-day holiday in Tangiers.

In January 1966, ''Loot'' was revived, with [[Oscar Lewenstein]] taking up an option. Before his production, it had a short run (11–23 April) at the [[Manchester School of Theatre|University Theatre, Manchester]]. Orton's growing experience led him to cut over 600 lines, raising the tempo and improving the characters' interactions. Directed by [[Braham Murray]], the play garnered more favourable reviews. Lewenstein put the London production in a "sort of Off-West End theatre," the [[Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre]] in [[Bloomsbury]], under the direction of [[Charles Marowitz]].

Orton clashed with Marowitz, although the additional cuts further improved the play. This production was first staged in London on 27 September 1966, to rave reviews. [[Ronald Bryden]] in ''[[The Observer]]'' asserted that it had "established Orton's niche in English drama".<ref>Colin Chambers ''Peggy: The Life of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent'', Nick Hern Books, 1997, pp. 164-65.</ref> ''Loot'' moved to the [[Criterion Theatre]] in November where it ran for 342 performances.<ref>Chambers, p. 165.</ref> This time it won several awards, and Orton sold the film rights for £25,000. ''Loot'', when performed on Broadway in 1968, repeated the failure of ''Sloane'', and the film version of the play was not a success when it surfaced in 1970.<ref>Chambers, p. 166.</ref>