The Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch is presenting the latest incarnation of Joe Orton’s Loot, a black, black farce that leaves no scruple unscrewed, no misogyny unmissed, no holy cow not turned into a juicy beef-burger for the delectation of his audience.
Bethany Pitts has directed a full-throated sexy farce. The cast embrace the juggling of embalmed mothers and bank raid loot with relish, Simon Startin as the bereaved Catholic alderman manages the straight man role exquisitely; baffled, outraged, abused, and the ultimate fall guy for a whole raft of criminal shenanigans. It’s a slightly thankless role, but very necessary when all his fellow cast members are being so outrageous.
The outrageous-ist of them all is Nicholas Karimi. An undercover policeman masquerading as an employee of the Metropolitan Waterboard, and assuming for that august institution powers that would amaze and delight Donald Trump’s ICE officers, he flaunts violence and corruption as matter-of-fact procedures for the police. He is funny, over the top, and energetic. It’s a performance to savour.
The Queen’s has built a beautiful many-doored box set (designed by Zoë Hurwitz) that has old-fashioned virtues and sets up a beautiful meta joke from Mr Karimi, the costumes are on point, and the whole cast makes the show run like clockwork, if the clock were set to ‘1960s Transgressive’.
The downside of re-staging Orton farces is that they sort of worked. When he intimated that police officers might be corrupt, that nurses might be homicidal, that men might be attracted to other men, there was a degree of shock. That is certainly not the case now, and what is left is Orton’s mordant, morbid, efforts to outrage located inside a vigorous farce. This show works the farce elements really well, and if it isn’t all that shocking anymore, that’s hardly the fault of the Queen’s Hornchurch.
The show runs until Saturday 7th March 2025.
Four Stars.
Reviewed by Chris Lilley.
Theatre, Art and Film Reviews 
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