Black comedy at Court

Press, 3 August 1983, Page 17

Black comedy at Court

Joe Orton’s “Loot,” which opens at the Court Threatre on August 13, is a black comedy that has become a classic of modem theatre. Everything sacred is treated with outrageous irreverence — religion, sex, the police force, mother love and most taboo of all, death. The play is a farce, but has a message. Two boys, Hal and Dennis, rob a bank in the nude and hide the loot in mum’s coffin. Mum has been “bumped off’ by the nurse who has a record of this sort of thing, having disposed of seven husbands and several patients in her career. Into this household

scene comes the odd Inspector Truscott who has come to investigate the robbery. His methods of investigation are not too scrupulous. Like Sherlock Holmes, he makes deductions about guilt or innocence based upon observation. The difference is, that where Holmes is right by using logic to find the answers, Trustcott uses illogic, but still marches his victims off to gaol. The play runs until September 10. It is directed by Lex Matheson, and the cast is headed by Sherril Cooper, Geoffrey Heath, William Kircher, Mark Trezona and Geoffrey Wearing.