Joe Orton

Though Orton’s roots lay in traditions as diverse as those represented by such writers as Wycherley, Congreve, Wilde, Shaw, Carroll, Firbank, Feydeau, Beckett and Pinter, he developed a form of ’anarchic farce’ which was very much his own - hence the word ’Ortonesque’. His work was deliberately subversive, not merely of the authority figures which he included in nearly all his plays, but of language and the congenialities of plot and character. Originally published in 1982, this study examines Orton’s principal plays, but its main concern is to identify his aesthetic, to elaborate the nature and achievements of anarchic farce and to locate him in relation to the developments in contemporary literature and art which have formed essential components of a post-modern sensibility.

Christopher Bigsby, an award-winning novelist, biographer and theatrical historian, is an emeritus professor at the University of East Anglia. He has written plays for BBC radio and television, was for many years a presenter for BBC Radio 4, is the author of a poetry collection, and has published more than sixty books including studies of British and American playwrights.