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| Cast | |
| Kath | Christine Angell |
| Kemp | Horry Stapleton |
| Ed | Ian Saxton |
| Sloane | Mark Campbell |
| Crew | |
| Stage Manager | Andy Godfrey |
| Assistant Stage Manager | Angela Juett |
| Set Design | Roz Betts |
| Set Construction | Mick Wright |
| Properties | Julia Randall |
| Lighting Rig | Bernard Tilley, Jerry McKeon |
| Lighting Operation | Stephanie Dungate |
| Sound | Ben Laing |
Review
Orton's Sloane danger
Joe Orton was the enfant terrible among the British playwrights and novelists of the '50s and '60s with his brand of black comedy that could both shock and delight the establishment and audiences of the time. On the basis of the production of Entertaining Mr Sloane at the Edward Alderton Theatre this week, things haven't changed much.
At the age of 34, Orton's live-in boyfriend killed him and then committed suicide immediately afterwards. Orton was an extraordinary and very creative writer whose plays highlight social injustices and examples of humanity in an often bizarre but powerful way. He was once called the Oscar Wilde of the welfare state but, unlike Wilde, he was not averse to introducing his own brand of sexuality into his plots.
Roz Belts has directed the Edward Alderton Theatre production and she has done a fine job. Like many of Orton's plays, the fairly simple story becomes more and more sinister as the action progresses. The dialogue is superb, the characters beautifully conceived, and the storyline is magnetic in its intensity. But powerful acting is a must and the director has to tread carefully in terms of the many subtleties and ways in which the characters interrelate.
Kath, for example, is a middle-aged woman who is hovering somewhere between 16 and 41 years of age. Her son was taken from her at any early age and she is desperate to have a lover who could become her new child. Her aged father Kemp thinks he is dying while her self-made entrepreneur of a brother, Ed, is estranged from his father after he caught him committing a "felony in the bedroom" when he was a teenager. It was Ed's male lover who made his sister pregnant.
The play begins as Kath brings home a mysterious new lodger, Mr Sloane, who quickly forms sexual liaisons with Kath and her brother. And then things begin to get nasty. Orton set out to shock his audiences but he knew where to stop. His plays are so well crafted that they never become offensive.
At the EAT, the director has created a totally absorbing and evenly-paced production while the acting is of an extraordinary quality. With his beautifully coiffured blonde hair and leather trousers, Mark Campbell could not better his role as the enigmatic Mr Sloane while Ian Saxton, playing the brother, cleverly mixes poise and arrogance with an overt sexuality. And, although Harry Stapleton excels in the part of the father, it is Christine Angell as Kath who swamps the stage with her childish ploys, innocence, animation and complete disregard for the realities of life. It is a performance of great stature.
Roy Atterbury
Kentish Times | 27 November 2003
Feature
Emotions captured in art
Last Sunday, the Edward Alderton Theatre hosted an unusual event which brought visual art and drama together in a highly unique fashion. Three mature students from the Camberwell College of Art had undertaken a project to express the emotions and images that they had formed while watching last year's EAT production of Joe Orton's black comedy/drama Entertaining Mr Sloane.
The results were displayed in the foyer and will be on view to audiences until Saturday. It is often suggested that any event is seen differently by those people who witness the occurrence. The project highlighted this with a series of paintings and drawings that not only captured the nature of the characters, their loneliness, and their shallow lives, they emphasised moods with clever use of colour, near abstract images, and powerfully drawn portraits.
The students are Sabina Pieper, Jamie Lynch, and Allison Henderson who is a member of the Bexleyheath based theatre.
Roy Atterbury
Kentish
Times | 18 March 2004
