Entertaining Mr Sloane
Bridewell Theatre, London

Hannah Knowles
posted 4 November 2005

With its heady cocktail of oedipal sex, abuse of the elderly and bisexual liaisons, Joe Orton's first play, Entertaining Mr Sloane, caused considerable scandal on its premiere back in 1964. In the ensuing years it has become a standard of British theatre, but has it retained its ability to shock?

Notions of morality have certainly changed considerably in the forty or so years since Orton's play premiered - there can be few audiences today shocked by bisexual liaisons, a middle-aged woman having an affair with a twentysomething man, or even murder - but the human ability to dissemble and manipulate still has the power to disturb.

And there's deception and manipulation a-plenty in Entertaining Mr Sloane, with the eponymous character wrapping first his landlady Kath (who has conflicting desires to seduce and mother him) around his finger, then her homosexual brother Eddie, for whom he works as a chauffeur - using the swanky car for his own advantage on his nights off. Things start to unravel however when Kath and Eddie's father Kemp identifies Sloane as the murderer of his old boss, and threatens to turn him in to the police. Soon after, Kath falls pregnant with Sloane's child, and Kemp tells Eddie that the lodger has been beating him up at night. In a rage, the latter beats Kemp so badly that he dies from his injuries. Horrified but still in lust with Sloane, Eddie seizes the occasion to his advantage, agreeing to make his father's death look like an accident in return for what is essentially a sexual timeshare of Sloane between himself and his sister.

The script is ridden with jokes and innuendo, but this is a deeply uncomfortable play, and this production from the Tower Theatre company fails to tap into its dark undercurrent. At times the production tips dangerously into Carry On territory, downplaying the disturbing power games between the main three characters for easy laughs and nudge nudge, wink wink innuendo.

For the ultimate reversal of power to Eddie and Kath to have its full impact, Sloane has to be believably in control of the opening scenes. But Dom Ward's Sloane rarely seems more than a spineless layabout, who
admittedly might have enough attractions to seduce his desperate landlady, but not the wits to manipulate her, her brother and their father to suit his needs.

Kay Perversi's Kath is suitably reminiscent of the grotesque titular character of Abigail's Party, though the lifting of her skirt, thrusting of cleavage and twirling of a heeled foot are at times a little over-played.
David Sellar meanwhile is fine if a little too blustering as Eddie, but it is Peter Novis as Kemp who steals the show - switching from grumpy old man, to watchful revenger, and ultimately to bullied but defiant victim with ease.

On this evidence the Tower Hill theatre company are not bad actors, and Entertaining Mr Sloane is still a powerful and disturbing play, but Despina Sellar's decision to play the script as a bedroom farce does somewhat undermine the impact the production could potentially have had. Ironically a little less desire to entertain might have lent the performance the subtlety it required.

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