Loot by Joe OrtonThe Central Concerns of the Play and How they are Dramatised

Loot by Joe Orton
The Central Concerns of the Play and How they are Dramatised

Loot is a satire: the normal moral conventions of behaviour in civilised, Western, society are turned upside down and the rules are broken down. This is epitomised by Truscott as a symbol of law and authority doing what he should not do. He does not uphold the law and he breaks the law in his investigation by deception, violence and dishonesty and corruption. Orton wrote the Play in the 1960’s which was a time of social re-evaluation and he attacks all the bastions of the Western world: religion, law and order, love and marriage, and respect for the dead. He relies on dramatic irony and the collusion of the audience to understand the moral message hidden in the comedy of the Play.

The structure of the Play mirrors a detective story in many respects. A crime has been committed and a detective has to solve it. Truscott is a parody of the detective novel detective with his pipe and magnifying gl...