Playwright: Joe Orton
Director: Michael Veitch
Cast: Marg Downey, Geoff Brooks, Humphrey Bower, William McInnes, Michael Veitch
Theatre: Mietta's, 7 Alfred Place, Melbourne, tel: 654 2366
Synopsis: A black comedy about robbery, police corruption and sexual depravity in an undertakers.
Rating: 4 stars
English playwright Joe Orton's 1966 play, Loot, is a boisterously irreverent black comedy given a reading in this production by some of Melbourne's most gifted comic performers.
As the fiersomely devious Detective Truscott, Michael Veitch (of Fast Forward and MMM fame) invades a funeral parlor to investigate a robbery.
The compulsively truthful but otherwise chillingly amoral Hal (Humphrey Bower) and his slimey accomplice Dennis (William McInnes) juggle the heist and Hal's mother's corpse with a horrendously callous but peculiarly amusing flair.
They are assisted by the mercenary femme fatale nurse Fay (Margaret Downey) and, reluctantly, by Hal's long-suffering father McLeavy (Geoff Brooks).
An audience member is also seconded to join the chaos in a bit role as a police constable (on opening night this was Michael Rymer, the writer and director in real life of the soon-to-be-released Australian feature film, Angel Baby).
This macabre play demands a fast pace and tightly choreographed action. It is a tribute to this cast's talent that, despite being a reading rather than a fully fledged production, the play's comic momentum is splendidly maintained.
While you need to have a certain fondness for black comedy to get full enjoyment out of the play, this production of Loot makes for a polished and satisfying evening's theatre - which, incidentally, can be taken as a fine dinner package if you so elect.
Jason Romney works on information law at Australian solicitors Price Brent, writes a weekly column about the Internet and World Wide Web for The Age newspaper, is theatre critic for the Herald Sun newspaper and co-hosts a live computer radio show on 102.7 3RRR-FM on Mondays at 7.00pm.
His e-mail address is jromney@werple.mira.net.au