 |
Leonie regularly takes part in Orton events and with
her sister Marilyn administers the Orton Estate. She recently
advised on and gave guided talks of the retrospective exhibition
'Ortonesque' which was held in Spring 2007 at Leicester's
New Walk Museum.
This exhibition brought together for the first time collections
of Joe Orton's literary papers and memorabilia from the University
of Leicester's Orton Collection, defaced library books from
Islington Local History Centre and personal items such as
his typewriter from The Orton Estate's collection. See some
of the exhibited items in the Gallery Section here
|
| |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
|
| |
MY
BROTHER JOE |
| |
I
want to talk to you about Joe Orton.
The two people who influenced Joe the most were his mother
and Kenneth Halliwell. If one of these two people had
not been there then Joe’s writing would have been
different. Joe’s plays and novels relate to the
way he was socialised. In an interview he said that ‘My
writing reflects the life I’ve lived. If I’d
had a different life my writing would be different.’
For us girls education wasn’t prized or encouraged
in the Orton household. If I made a mistake I was either
beaten or told I was stupid. I now realise to quote Samuel
Beckett, ‘Fail. Fail Again. Fail Better next time.’
However Joe was able to escape from this and eventually
challenged society’s fervently held moral values
through satire, exploding myth after myth.
He hated middle class pompousness, the ‘holier than
thou’ attitude. Joe’s recently published early
works, such as as Fred and Madge, show his emergence as
a satirist, attacking the lower middle class provincial
life and obsession with work as a virtue. As he progressed
and developed, his work tackled more universal issues;
in Loot he lampoons institutions such as police corruption
and hypocrisy in the church.
I must emphasise that I am constantly having my perception
changed about Joe. That’s good because there isn’t
just one Joe Orton.
|
|
|
