The Stage

Prick Up Your Ears

Published Thursday 1 October 2009 at 12:40 by Mark Shenton

Kenneth Halliwell apparently provided the titles - and some of the lines and situations - to his partner Joe Orton’s plays like The Ruffian on the Stair and Loot, but the closest he came to being recognised for his efforts was the fact that Entertaining Mr Sloane was dedicated to him. When Orton collected his Evening Standard Award for Loot in 1967, however, he took his agent, Peggy Ramsay, not Ken, to the ceremony - he was never able to acknowledge Halliwell’s contributions to his work publicly.

But the two were to become inextricably linked forever when Halliwell bludgeoned Orton to death with a hammer later that same year, before taking an overdose of sleeping pills and his own life. These facts, of course, have been well publicised before, both in John Lahr’s biography and Orton’s own published diaries, that have previously also formed the basis of Alan Bennett’s script for Stephen Frears’ 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears.

Now, under the same title, playwright Simon Bent revisits the same territory and from the same sources as Bennett, but doesn’t provide any further illumination as it tries to go behind the doors of the tiny Islington flat they shared at 25 Noel Road. “You couldn’t write the plays you do but for me”, Bent has Ken telling Joe - whether or not that is true, Bent could not have written this play but for Halliwell, so there’s a kind of poetic justice that his time has come at last.

Bent’s play sometimes feels a little second-hand, with both its dramatic outcome obviously predetermined and some of its lines seemingly channelled from Orton by way of Bennett. There’s a cosy, Bennett-lite portrait of neighbour Mrs Corden who, hearing of Halliwell’s father committing suicide by gassing himself, says, “The Gas Board should only issue ovens to people of sound mental health.”

But with its evocative recreation of their Noel Road flat by designer Peter McIntosh, Daniel Kramer’s smart, funny and eventually poignant production earns its keep by the fully inhabited strength of its two lead actors. Matt Lucas, exposing himself emotionally as well as physically as Ken, is a revelation - we already know he can do funny talks, walks and accents from Little Britain, but he also mines a far darker pain here that is heart-rending. Chris New brings an agile sexiness to Joe that also reveals the character’s selfishness. Gwen Taylor’s cameo as Mrs Corden is an inventive comic delight.

Together, they make a now-familiar story resonate with fresh laughter and even fresher distress.