Joe Orton was an English playwright, author, and diarist whose short career produced influential black comedies including Entertaining Mr Sloane and Loot.
Joe Orton
The Orton Diaries
Ed. John Lahr. 1986. Methuen Paperback, 1989.
Monday 20 March [1967]...Long walk through Regent's Park. Sunshine and the first ghastliness of Spring. Found that the café in the park was partially open. Bought an orangeade and a Coca-Cola. Sat in the blazing light and noticed how hideous the bright sunshine made everyone (including myself) appear. Like blanched and unsavoury apes. Felt scratchy and soiled
Sunday 30 April. Rang Kenneth Williams this morning at 9.30. I arranged that Kenneth H. and I should go down and pick him up at his flat at 10.30. We thought it might be nice, as it was a fine, sunny morning, to go for a stroll in Regent's Park. When we arrived Kenneth greeted us with a beaming smile...We walked into the park. "Which way shall we walk?" I said. Kenneth tossed his nose in the air. "Well, I'm not one for your walking," he said. "Let's get a deckchair and have a sit down. Watch all the queens passing. That's what I like." We found three deckchairs and had to wipe the birdshit from them before they were fit to sit on. "All this excrement is a disgrace!" Kenneth said. We sat for a while in the sun and talked
Kenneth Williams had appeared in the original production of the author's play Loot, before it had transferred to the Criterion Theatre in November the previous year. Kenneth H. was Orton's lover, Kenneth Halliwell. He was to murder Orton four months later and then take his own life.