Loot by Joe Orton

Loot by Joe Orton

Gunston Arts Center
2700 S. Lang Street Arlington

Joe Orton’s Loot represents one of the most audacious achievements in twentieth-century British theatre — a black farce that both embodies and satirizes social mores, and probes the nature of authority, religion, and morality through razor-sharp dialogue and uproarious physical comedy. First staged in 1965, the play follows two young men who rob a bank and, desperate to conceal the loot, stash it in a coffin. This incident triggers a farcical, anarchic chain of events involving a spectacularly bent police inspector, a predatory nurse, and a grieving, oblivious widower. Loot is much more than a bank-heist comedy; it’s a master class in controlled chaos, provocative, subversive, and wickedly funny.

Presented by The Edge of the Universe Theater

Jun 5 - Jun 28, 2026