ETT - English Touring Theatre

Entertaining Mr Sloane

Joe Orton

About the Production

Creative Team
Cast
Downloads

DIRECTOR	Nick Bagnall
DESIGNER	Peter McKintosh
COSTUME DESIGNER	Colin Richmond
LIGHTING DESIGNER	Simon Mills
SOUND DESIGNER	Mike Furness
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR	Will Mortimer
ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE	Kathy Burke

KATH	Imelda Staunton
MR SLOANE	Mathew Horne
ED	Simon Paisley Day
DADA	Richard Bremmer

Downloadable Education Packs

Download Entertaining Mr Sloane Education Pack

Plot

I’d had the upbringing of a nun. Until I was fifteen I was more familiar with Africa than my own body

Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake, Cranford, Shakespeare in Love) and BAFTA award-winning Mathew Horne (Gavin and Stacey, The Catherine Tate Show), star in Joe Orton’s fiendishly dark comedy.

It may be the Swinging 60s but in a crumbling corner of London, Kath is lonely. Craving love and affection, she decides to take a lodger. Behind closed doors, a web of dark secrets, blackmail and betrayal is spun, as both Kath and her bachelor brother become infatuated with the shady young tenant with a murky past - Mr. Sloane. Soon he is the centre of their worlds, their ultimate fantasy, and the main player, and pawn, in their sexual games.

Originally staged in 1964, this wickedly biting comedy sparked controversy with its mischievous peep at the hypocrisy behind the ‘new’ permissive society of the 1960s and the British fascination with sex.

Joining forces for the first time, ETT unites with production company MJE, whose recent West End and touring credits include Six Characters in Search of an Author, Blackbird, On the Waterfront, Tintin and Twelve Angry Men.

Our Co-producers

Michael Edwards and Carole Winter

Production Photographs

Rehearsal Photographs

Latest Reviews

Press Reviews
Your Reviews

Nick Bagnall’s absolutely tip-top production is distinguished by two dazzling performances.
The Spectator
Music OMH
Caricature acting will seldom be done as well as in the new Joe Orton revival, where Imelda Staunton heads a really good cast, well directed by Nick Bagnall.
Daily Mail
Nick Bagnall’s production gives the play a full personal service, nudge nudge.
The Financial Times
The Independent
The Evening Standard
Joe Orton’s black comedy is given a vigorous treatment here with a superb cast led by intuitive direction from Nick Bagnall.
The Stage
Again and again I felt I was watching a comic masterpiece.

A fine performance from Richard Bremmer. Imagine a mix of ghost and scarecrow, yet one just human enough to send drool down his unshaven chin - and Orton's picture of petit bourgeois awfulness is complete.
The Times
You can almost smell Nick Bagnall's terrific production of Joe Orton's murky 1964 comedy.
Timeout
Director Nick Bagnall delivers a show that combines pace with revealing comic detail, and there isn't a single weak performance.

Matthew Horne reveals a darker side in this wild, witty and heartless performance of Entertaining Mr Sloane.

Superb work from Simon Paisley Day.
The Telegraph
Imelda Staunton is a matchless Kath, bringing out, in equal measure, the character's voracity, pathos and cunning.
The Guardian

Wow, wow wow! What an incredible show & cast. Every performance simply outstanding.I wish I could bottle the near hysterical comic excitement of a sometimes hard to please West End audience at Imelda Staunton's apparition pre-interval! Please,please,please say you are going to tour with this show & cast & make sure the North-East is on your list!
Annie Wallace

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