Joe Orton’s Last Laugh

Joe Orton’s Last Laugh is a fresh take on the fraught relationship between the celebrated writer Joe Orton and his aggrieved partner Kenneth Halliwell.

This new play movingly charts Halliwell’s painful descent from being Orton’s mentor into severe mental illness and suicide. Halliwell significantly contributed to Orton’s success but never received the credit which he felt he deserved. He became increasingly agitated as Orton exclusively enjoyed the limelight. Joe Orton’s Last Laugh finds good reason to see Kenneth Halliwell in a more sympathetic light. The themes of mental illness and the darker side of fame also offer a fascinating reflection of the same issues in today’s society.