Loot

by Joe Orton

Book Overview

A black farce masterpiece, Loot follows the fortunes of two young thieves, Hal and Dennis. Dennis is a hearse driver for an undertaker. They have robbed the bank next door to the funeral parlour and have returned to Hal's home to hide-out with the loot. Hal's mother has just died and the pair put the money in her coffin, hiding the body elsewhere in the house. With the arrival of Inspector Truscott, the thickened plot turns topsy-turvy. Playing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0413451801
• ISBN13: 9780413451804
• Release Date: February 1967
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

A very dark British comedy.

This play seems to be the logical evolution of the play Arsenic and Old Lace. Written in the sixties for the British stage, it was panned in its first production. However a year and a half later, as its author was about to give up hope, a new production opened and met with great success. Loot is fairly brief at only two acts, yet is brimming with its delicious brand of sin. The scenario begins with an atmosphere of apparent darkness but quickly reveals its hilarious undertones. By the end of the play the reader/audience has unconsciously become a part of the morally bereft world which Orton creates. Its no matter though because you are crying with laughter.