Location: Comedy Theatre Type of production: Play Opened: 17 September 2009

Booking until: 15 November 2009

Running time: 2 Hrs 10 Mins

Author/Playwright: Simon Bent

Cast: Con O'Neill , Chris New

Synopsis:

1962. Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton - RADA graduates, aspiring playwrights, and sometime lovers - plot their rightful place at the centre of London’s literary scene whilst engaged in a secret crusade to “improve” the local library books, all in the worst possible taste of course, and acting out their own versions of popular radio dramas... with an extra dash of innuendo.  But after a short interlude at Her Majesty’s pleasure, Joe is about to become the greatest, and most notorious comic playwright since Oscar Wilde, whilst Ken stays indoors re-decorating, reduced to sharing Joe’s success with their neighbour, Mrs Corden, over tea and a slice of battenburg.

Prick Up Your Ears - a darkly funny and moving play imagines what really happened when, after years of creative collaboration, the door slammed shut and Kenneth was home alone.   It tells the sensational story behind the domestic life of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, holed up in a tiny flat in Islington, trading well-trodden insults and hilarious put-downs like any old married couple.

'FIERCE INTENSITY. POIGNANT AND MOVING' Evening Standard Henry Hitchings

*****

'Prick Up Your Ears brings a new younger audience into theatres - one that is badly needed and doesn't come loaded with the literary baggage of critics' Independent on Sunday Janet Street Porter

*****

'CREASINGLY FUNNY' London Lite Charlotte Melville

*****

'Chris New invests the cocky, clever aspirational Orton with a quick, darting impatient energy' the Guardian Michael Billington

*****
'SUPERB' Sunday Express Mark Shenton

*****

'These are fine, original performances, beautifully complemented by Gwen Taylor as the neighbour, Mrs Corden' Whats on Stage Michael Coveney

*****

"Chris New is brilliant" Sunday Times

*****