Entertaining Mr. Sloane | The Moral Dimensions of Comedy
In this essay the author discusses the moral dimensions of comedy and their relevance to Orton's first full-length play, Entertaining Mr. Sloane.
The rebellious and comical style that Joe Orton is most famous (or infamous) for does not surface in its complete form until his last two major plays, Loot and What the Butler Saw. His first major play, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, however, ultimately embodies enough of the qualities noticed by his critics and seen throughout his works to illustrate the central artistic issue in Orton's drama. Is Orton a master satirist and farceur, a ground-breaking comic genius, or a disenchanted man-child metaphorically throwing rocks at the establishment?
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