“It’s incredible to believe that it’s been forty years since Joe died. He had a very detached and funny way of looking at things; he managed to make many of life’s darker issues outrageously funny and this exhibition illustrates that perfectly.” Leonie Orton-Barnett, 2007

 

A retrospective exhibition, ‘Ortonesque; Joe Orton 1933 - 1967’, took a chronological look at Orton including his life in Leicester and London, his relationship with Kenneth Halliwell, time spent in prison and on the dole, his alter ego ‘Edna Welthorpe’, holidays in Morocco, plays, novels and diaries and finally, his death and legacy.

 

For the first time a collection of Orton’s personal belongings went on public display. Highlights included his 1967 Evening Standard Award for ‘Loot’, his Morocco diaries and his typewriter. One of the star attractions was the fur coat his agent Peggy Ramsay bought for him. The coat was also used in the 1987 film about Orton’s life “Prick Up Your Ears” which starred Gary Oldman. The exhibition also included the suitcase he used to visit Morocco and Libya, several of the vandalised Islington Library book covers, scripts, photos, posters, programmes, letters and manuscripts. All of the items were on loan from the University of Leicester’s Orton Collection, Islington Borough Council and The Orton Estate.

  

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EXHIBITION HAS NOW CLOSED