Stephen Frears's PRICK UP YOUR EARS chronicles the rise and tragic demise of Joe Orton, the gay playwright whose brief but dazzling career spawned the brilliant farces
Loot,
Entertaining Mr. Sloan and
What the Butler Saw and made a lasting contribution to the English-language theater.
Born John Orton in Leicester, England, Orton died at age 34 in 1967 when his longtime lover, Kenneth Halliwell, crushed his skull with a hammer before downing two handfuls of Nembutal to take his own life. PRICK UP YOUR EARS opens with this grisly event, then unfolds in flashbacks as biographer
John Lahr (Wallace Shawn) researches Orton's brief life.
This i...
Released:
1987
Rated:
R
Length:
111 mins