The Play is the Thing; Sexy Gay Playwrights
Joe Orton was born in Leicester in 1933. After winning a scholarship to RADA in 1951, he met Kenneth Halliwell, an actor and writer seven years his senior. Halliwell would become Ortonâs friend, mentor, lover and, eventually, his murderer.
Between 1964 and 1967, Joe Orton contributed to an exciting working class culture that swept through the nation. A promiscuous and openly gay man at a time when homosexuality was actively persecuted by the police, Orton was the rising star of an âalternative British intelligentsiaâ.
His first stage play, Entertaining Mr Sloane, was a huge success while his second, Loot, won the coveted Evening Standard award for Best Play. However, Ortonâs success as a playwright and celebrity put a distance between himself and Kenneth Halliwell that the latter found increasingly difficult to cope with.
In August 1967 Halliwell, by now suffering from severe depression, murdered Orton before killing himself. His suicide note referred to the contents of Orton's diary as an explanation of his actions: âIf you read his diary, all will be explained âŚâ Â
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier in Mississippi and was doted on by his grandmother, grandfather (an Episcopal priest), mother and sister. It wasnât until after college that he took on the name âTennesseeâ and decided to become a writer. Much of what the public knew about his personal life was orchestrated by Williams himself, including the year he was born. âHis devil-may-care attitude, bringing him fame and fortune as a playwright of sexuality and violence, really was a rebellion against his Puritan upbringing. Deep down, he was an intensely serious writer who saw his creativity as a gift and writing as a vocation. The characters in Williamsâ are complex and deep. They often have a facade that erodes over the course of the play, revealing deep inner fears, doubts and flaw. This can be seen in some of his most popular works such as Cat on a Hot tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire.Â
Edward Albee was born in March of 1928 and was the adopted son of Reed A. and Frances Cotter Albee of New York. Albeeâs contribution to the theatre community has not gone un-noticed. He has received three Pulitzer Prizes, one of which was for Three Tall Women. âIn 2002, Albee won the Tony Award for Best Play for The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? Through it all, Albee has not missed a step, continuing to teach, direct, and write new playsâ (Mann 1). Â Some of his most famous works include Whoâs Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Delicate Balance, The Zoo Story andThe Lady from Dubuque. [Mann, Bruce J. "Introduction." Edward Albee: A Casebook. Ed. Bruce J. Mann. New York: Routledge, 2003. 1-5. Questia. Web.]
Noel Coward was so influential that the name âCowardâ has become synonymous with an English style. The style is reflected in silk gowns, sophisticated cigarette holders, upper-class accents, wit and sex appeal. âHis plays reinforced image, and Coward was not averse to audiences confusing him with his leading male heterosexual charactersâ (Duerden 81). Cowardâs humor was found and written within common phrases that were perfectly timed, so the delivery itself was funny, not the words he used. Some of his most notable works include Iâll Leave It to You, Hay Fever, Easy Virtue and Private Lives. [Duerden, Sarah. "NoĂŤl Coward (1899-1973)." British Playwrights, 1880-1956: A Research and Production Sourcebook. Ed. William W. Demastes andKatherine E. Kelly. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. 81-96. Questia. Web.]
