Nienhuis is a Ph D. specializing in modem and contemporary drama. In this essay he discusses the moral dimensions of comedy and their relevance to Orton's first full-length play, Entertaining Mr. Sloane.

The rebellious and comical style that Joe Orton is most famous (or infamous) for does not surface in its complete form until his last two major plays, Loot and What the Butler Saw. His first major play, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, however, ultimately embodies enough of the qualities noticed by his Critics and seen throughout his works to illustrate the central artistic Issue in Orton's drama. Is Orton a master satirist and farceur, a ground-breaking comic genius, or a disenchanted man-child metaphorically throwing rocks at the establishment?

Known now mainly for his wildly extravagant farce, Orton's absurd tendencies do not get liberated in Entertaining Mr. Sloane until Act III, most notably when-in the struggle with Sloane-Kath's...