STAGE REVIEW : A Priceless ‘Loot’ Comes to S.D. Rep

It’s a wicked world we live in. And don’t the characters in “Loot” enjoy every wicked moment in it?

Joe Orton’s farce about Hal and Dennis, two polite young bank robbers who use Hal’s soon-to-be-buried mother’s coffin to stash their cash, is one of those comedies that try the soul.

These fellows have no redeeming qualities, and you know you shouldn’t laugh when Dennis trips over a glass eye that slips out of the embalmed body, but, by then, Orton has you so wired into his weird sense of humor that it would be downright painful to resist.

A sterling production of this black comedy is playing at the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum Stage through Sept. 8. It is directed by Walter Schoen with a clarity that makes the actors’ performances sparkle.

If you don’t see characters you love, you will certainly see reflections of public characters that you love to loathe.

If the humor must be justified, one can point out that Orton’s target is hypocrisy--a commodity that has not diminished since Orton wrote the play a quarter century ago.

“We must keep up appearances” is the key phrase in the play.

And there’s piety, too. But this piety is like the “piety” we hear today from adulterous evangelists or sanctimonious politicians most interested in fattening their own wallets. It is only word deep.

In “Loot,” the Bible-quoting nurse, Fay--exquisitely played by perky and perfectly coiffed Diana Castle--is a patient-killer out for her 8th husband in 10 years. The blonde Castle has the wholesome look of Doris Day, but Fay is, if anything, Doris Day’s evil twin. As soon as Hal’s mother is in her coffin, she has her eyes on Hal’s father, a new widower.

The widower, played by Maury Cooper with a straight and narrow vigor that makes him the center of the storm that surrounds him, is the only one in the play to respect authority and religion. But even this high-minded gentleman is eminently blackmailable. He is so threatened by the nurse’s supposed claim to his wife’s money that he promises to propose to the nurse on the way to the cemetery just to get it back.

Jon Matthews masterfully finds a way to lend shades of feeling to the unfeeling Hal. He exudes a delicious attitude just in the way he listens--you know by the look on his face when someone is giving him a line. And as Dennis, Hal’s doleful partner in crime, master pratfaller Bruce McKenzie doesn’t disappoint.

But the yummiest part belongs to Truscott, the detective masquerading as a water board inspector because, as a water board inspector, he doesn’t need the search warrant no one will give him to pursue these crimes.

Tom Oleniacz has a great time with Orton’s parody of a detective, out-Holmesing Sherlock and out-Columboing Columbo. How does Truscott guess that Fay killed one of her previous husbands in a seaside resort hotel? When he shook her hand and felt the salty erosion on one of her rings . . . well, you’ll just have to hear the clever exposition for yourself.

A witty technical team supports this excellent cast. Thomas Buderwitz wisely built an elegant, tastefully furnished set that fills just half of the Rep’s stage and creates an intimate feel. Emelle Holmes did the eye-catching, stylishly bright costumes, Diane Boomer the fine lighting, Lawrence Czoka the parody of a sanctimonious sound design.

If a subtle sadness radiates beneath the humor here, it comes because Orton knew something of the violence that can lurk beneath good manners. And, sadly, the price of his own fame was to be murdered by his longtime mentor, companion and lover, Kenneth Halliwell, at age 34 in 1967, soon after writing “What the Butler Saw” and just two years after writing “Loot.”

Halliwell, who at one time co-wrote novels with Orton, was evidently jealous of Orton’s fame and killed himself right after the murder.

Love and hate, fame and jealousy, lies and truth: Orton knew these things were inextricably intertwined in this most imperfect of worlds. In “Loot,” a masterly contrast between good manners and bad deeds, he allows us to look and laugh at how life’s contradictions intertwine. But, slyly, this master of farce doesn’t allow us to forget the sometimes deadly consequences of the mix.

“LOOT”

By Joe Orton. Director is Walter Schoen. Set by Thomas Buderwitz. Costumes by Emelle Holmes. Lighting by Diane Boomer. Sound by Lawrence Czoka. Stage manager is Julie A. Moore. With Maury Cooper, Diana Castle, Jon Matthews, Bruce McKenzie, Tom Oleniacz, Paul James Kruse and Suzanne Schefke.