Loot

Cast & Crew

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Observations

1. On 26^th December 2020 at 2:51 a.m., Peter_S noted:

   EARLIER THAN THIS was the production of 1965 ( here follows some detail from WIKIPEDIA to whom thanks. QUOTE premiered in Cambridge on 1 February 1965. The production starred Geraldine McEwan, Kenneth Williams, Duncan Macrae and Ian McShane and was directed by Peter Wood.

   Responses to the first production were extremely mixed, with many in the audience outraged, as Orton had intended, but largely negative reviews also affected the box office. The London Evening News called it “one of the most revolting things I’ve ever seen.”[2] The first run ended at Wimbledon on 20 March 1965 with the play considered a flop due to its problems with repeated script rewrites, uneven direction, a stylish but unsympathetic set, and what many considered the miscasting of Williams.

   Loot was successfully revived the following year, however, at the Jeanette Cochrane Theatre in Holborn. It opened on 27 September 1966 with Gerry Duggan as McLeavy, Sheila Ballantine as Fay, Kenneth Cranham as Hal, Simon Ward as Dennis, and Michael Bates as Inspector Truscott.[3] It was directed by Charles Marowitz and designed by Tony Carruthers.[3] The production transferred to the Criterion Theatre in November 1966. END OF WIKIQUOTE/ here continues my own comment – on the miscasting of Williams, the problem was that he was doing a comic turn while the rest of the cast were really acting. It created a clash of styles. I didn’t mind but I could understand the majority view, It was different, for me, being young and lapping up “absurd” humour. The Goons had already created a gulf between generations.

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