[Ad- gifted experience] The Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch is one we frequent. They’ve got a single stage, where they put on fantastic shows. There is a bar outside the stage, along with a cafe on the other side, and plenty of seating while you wait for the show to begin. This time, we went along to see Loot – a take on Joe Orton’s classic dark farce, though we hadn’t heard of it before.
Loot felt like an older performance, probably due to to the material that it is based on, as this play had premiered in 1965. Dann said it reminded him of the Marks Brothers and the old Carry On movies – as it’s sort of a who-done-it with robbers, a cop who spends too much time overcomplicating things, someone who cannot lie, and a clueless father who isn’t going to blame anyone. There are two thieves who are attempting to hide some stolen money, during one of their mother’s funeral no less. It’s a show with a lot of dark humor; from physical moments where things went wrong in a funny way to what everyone was saying. Some of these moments of humor were on the crude side, while others where just really silly – a good mix of things to laugh at.
There were some digs at religion – primarily between Catholics and Protistans and digs at police forces as well, bringing in funny moments and moments that just made everyone in the theatre laugh out loud. It’s a fun one, with a few twists along the way. The stage itself didn’t change during the performance – with the starting room (inside one of the houses of the thieves) not changing much, despite some stuff going on outside of it. You’ll be following cover-ups to the crime, which is primarily what is going on, not only by the two thieves but also by the husband of the dead women (and father to one of the thieves) and the nurse of the deceased. The police officer is also a funny character, with silly moments and wild lines to follow. It’s a neat take on greed, ,distraction, and people who cannot lie.
We very much enjoyed seeing this version of Loot and found the actors to have been doing a fantastic job of playing their individual characters and delivering the physical comedy to the show. It all wrapped up well too – which was as expected – but still provided a bit of fun towards the end. It’s well worth checking out Loot if you haven’t seen another version or if you have.
You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!
I love going to theatres a lot but I couldn’t this entire winter. I can’t wait to check some of these wonderful plays. Loot is awesome.
First of all, Queen’s Theater sounds like such a vibe. Second, Loot looks like a great show. What a fun way to spend an evening!