Through the closet with Ken and Joe: a close look at clothes, poses and exposure

It is fitting that the prurient fascination that surrounds Joe Orton’s life, work and death should be fed by Orton’s determination to position his body in the public eye. It is hard to think of another playwright whose naked, or semi-naked, body has appeared in print so often, or indeed, at all. In this respect, as in many others, Orton stands out from his contemporaries. Through detailed analysis of his diaries, correspondence and interviews as well as close study of photographs of him this essay explores Orton’s self-presentation through clothing, his understanding of the politics of dress and the invitation and challenge this offered to audiences of his work and interviews. This project also requires a detailed consideration of Orton’s partner Kenneth Halliwell’s clothing and challenges the still depressingly pervasive view of him as a middle aged nonentity’. Developing Simon Shepherd’s work on Orton in Because We’re Queers (1989) in to the realm of material culture I suggest that, like the collages they produced, Orton and Halliwell’s self-presentation presented an invitation and challenge to look again, and look closely, at their work and the queer challenge it presents.