Loot

(Sydney Theatre Company)

Joe Orton's play 'Loot' first performed at Cambridge, England in 1965 was a failure. Re-staged about a year later the play was a hit and has been revived periodically since. A film version with Richard Attenborough and Lee Remick was released in 1972.

At the outset, the play scandalised audiences. It portrayed police corruption, a concept that was met with disbelief in those more innocent times, and hints of bisexuality. The presence of a corpse on stage shocked audiences.

Nowadays a play about two men hiding the proceeds of a bank robbery in a coffin to keep a nosy policeman at bay whilst a scheming nurse tries to defraud the grieving widower seems pretty tame.

This production is fun it it's way especially during the second act which unfolds in the style of a farce. It's all a bit dated now though and I doubt that anyone in today's audience was shocked.