theatreSCOTLAND

11 September 2005 Sunday Times

Loot

By Joe Orton. Byre Theatre review.

‘YOUR sense of detachment is terrifying, lad,” says police officer Truscott admiringly to young Hal, who is blithely reuniting his mother’s corpse with her false teeth and glass eye. This is after the body has been hidden upside down in a wardrobe, disguised as a tailor’s dummy and very nearly dumped in an unmarked grave. The detachment exemplified by Hal in Loot is the key to the whole of Joe Orton’s brief but explosive career.

theatreSCOTLAND © Mark Fisher 2009