Kath and her elderly father, Kemp, live in a house on the outskirts of a rubbish dump. Their drab existence is interrupted by the arrival of a new lodger, the enigmatic Mr. Sloane.

Provocative and sexually ambiguous, Sloane soon has both Kath and her brother Ed competing for his favours. But all is not as it seems. Behind Sloane’s nonchalant demeanor lies a calculating psychopath with a dark and secretive past. Seduction, blackmail and murder lie waiting in the wings.

There is a particular prop set up in Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr. Sloane that vividly distills both the essence of the play and the essential spirit of the playwright. One of the characters brings it out just before the darkest elements of the story begin to reveal themselves: a little garden gnome subtly placed in passing upon a dresser in the background that watches over events unfolding like some mocking deity having a chuckle over humanity’s irrationality, lust for power, and quick willingness to overlook transgressions extending even to the degree of murder if it serves their own selfish desires. Indeed, Orton’s play—one of the handful he wrote before he was bludgeoned to death by his long-time lover, Kenneth Halliwell, who proceeded to kill himself with pills—is a tale of deep pain finding serious catharsis by parading around in the exaggerations of a hysterically farcical mask. Yes, it is a hilarious piece of theatre, sometimes all the more so because it is so uncomfortable that laughter serves as the only route of escape. Directed by Craig Smith, this revival of Entertaining Mr. Sloane is a production of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, performed at the Wild Project. The plot revo …Read more