Since it was premiered in 1964 – when male homosexuality was still illegal and an illegitimate pregnancy a neighbourhood scandal – Joe Orton’s first full-length play has lost some of its ability to shock. Other aspects, however, remain as unsettling as they were 50 years ago: Sloane’s casual violence, his abuse of the elderly Kemp, the pseudo-incestuous relationship between Sloane and Kath, and the depths to which sexual infatuation can drive people. It is a testament to Orton’s script, and to director Michael Cabot and his cast, that the play still provokes laughter and revulsion in equal measure.
Pauline Whitaker’s Kath veers between maternal and childlike with great skill, eliciting sympathy one minute and derision the next as she alternately mothers and flirts with Sloane. As the title character, Paul Sandys carries off the swaggering arrogance and boredom of Sloane, manipulating the siblings into believing themselves to be the manipulators. Nicholas Gasson’s Ed is the archetypal east-end bruiser made good, struggling with, and ultimately embracing, his forbidden feelings for Sloane, while Jonathan Ashley’s Kemp, the only remotely sympathetic character in the play, makes an excellent foil for the grotesques around him.Praise should also go to set designer Simon Kenny, who has created an intimate, claustrophobic setting for the play’s events. Kath and her father live their life surrounded by old furniture piled on junk piled on more old furniture, the house perfectly reflecting the chaos and dysfunction of its inhabitants.
London Classic Theatre’s production of Entertaining Mr Sloane continues touring until early July and is well worth catching if it comes your way.