@JoeOrtonWriter

Quotations from the diaries, plays, novels and letters of the Leicester-born writer (1933-1967), news and other Ortonalia

 The gutter
instagram.com/joe.orton.50.years.on
Joined October 2014
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  • Followers2.4K
788Media
New essay on Joe Orton - What’s wrong with the film Prick Up Your Ears? Why are there so many plays about his death? tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…

Queer Thanatography: Joe Orton’s Death and Afterlife

This essay explores the cultural afterlife of 1960s British playwright Joe Orton (1933-1967) by identifying, for the first time, a corpus of biodramas about his death. It proposes that these biodra...

tandfonline.com
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Great to read three poems for the Literary Leicester Cycle Tour today, including Gorilla in the Roses, my Orton poem inspired from a previous tour led by the @uniofleicester's Dr Emma Parker, and View from a Bridge (a #RiverSoar poem performed on the #RiverSoar) #JoeOrton
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A poem about Joe Orton in @nicholas_hogg’s new collection, Swimming with Horses.
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Do please read this insightful essay on queer thanatography and the cultural afterlife of Joe Orton. It is by Dr Emma Parker of the University of Leicester. It includes a reference to the play Joe Orton's Last Laugh that I co-wrote with Robert J Francis. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…

Queer Thanatography: Joe Orton’s Death and Afterlife

This essay explores the cultural afterlife of 1960s British playwright Joe Orton (1933-1967) by identifying, for the first time, a corpus of biodramas about his death. It proposes that these biodra...

tandfonline.com
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Long shot - does anyone have a copy of the script of Avis Caminez & Ivor Powell’s play The Other Side of the Room? It opened at the Theatre Royal Nottingham in August 1975 before touring and is based on Orton & Halliwell.
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The play was also on @BristolHipp @NewTheatreOx @GrandTheatreLS1 @WolvesGrand Can you help? @WhatsOnStage @StageTalkUK @AleksSierz @billicritic @domcavendish
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RIP Peter Gill (1939-2026) ‘Perhaps you’d like a picture of me without my clothes,’ I said. Peter’s eyes lit up…He jumped up and down in glee’ (The Orton Diaries, 5 May, 1967).
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deadline.com/2026/08/ewan-mc…
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Joe Orton retweeted
Joe Orton@JoeOrtonWriterAug 13
New essay on Joe Orton - What’s wrong with the film Prick Up Your Ears? Why are there so many plays about his death? tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…

Queer Thanatography: Joe Orton’s Death and Afterlife

This essay explores the cultural afterlife of 1960s British playwright Joe Orton (1933-1967) by identifying, for the first time, a corpus of biodramas about his death. It proposes that these biodra...

tandfonline.com
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Sheila Hancock and others on bringing Joe Orton back into the limelight - and the need to do so telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what…

Sheila Hancock on Joe Orton: ‘He was up to the most appalling things. He was extremely sexual’

The writer led a scandalous life. But are his plays exactly what British theatre needs?

telegraph.co.uk
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What does the case of Joe Orton reveal about the culture wars & cancel culture? Is Joe Orton a homosexual hero or a bad gay? Does his work champion sexual liberation or express sexual trauma? Neither? Both? Some new insights here: tinyurl.com/2jbe7ntm
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What does the case of Joe Orton reveal about the culture wars & cancel culture? Is Joe Orton a homosexual hero or a bad gay? Does his work champion sexual liberation or express sexual trauma? Neither? Both? Some new insights here: tinyurl.com/2jbe7ntm
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New essay on Joe Orton, available in full online: tinyurl.com/2jbe7ntm
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New essay on Joe Orton, available in full online: tinyurl.com/2jbe7ntm
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A rare screening of 3 of Joe Orton’s TV plays from the 1960s @BFI on 7 Sept 2025: tinyurl.com/v6dynjde He loved Sheila Hancock in Entertaining Mr Sloane: ‘like a gone-off Monroe’. Look out for his cameo in The Erpingham Camp.
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Weather looks good for this FREE Joe Orton event on Saturday 9 August! ☀️ @ClarryPark @WritingEM @EnglishAssoc @Literature letsride.co.uk/rides/ride-le…

Ride Leicester Joe Orton Ride

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letsride.co.uk
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Get Thee To Leicester on 9 August...
Joe Orton@JoeOrtonWriter29 Jul 2025
Free bike tour of Joe Orton’s Leicester! Sat 9 Aug. Visit the estate where he wrote his first play, find out what books he borrowed from his local library & discover how growing up in Leicester shaped his plays. You can even borrow an e-bike for free! Book via Let’s Ride website.
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Free bike tour of Joe Orton’s Leicester! Sat 9 Aug. Visit the estate where he wrote his first play, find out what books he borrowed from his local library & discover how growing up in Leicester shaped his plays. You can even borrow an e-bike for free! Book via Let’s Ride website.
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Free bike tour of Joe Orton’s Leicester! Sat 9 Aug. Visit the estate where he wrote his first play, find out what books he borrowed from his local library & discover how growing up in Leicester shaped his plays. You can even borrow an e-bike for free! Book via Let’s Ride website.
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