Malicious Damage - Islington Council
Malicious Damage - Islington Council
Malicious Damage - Islington Council
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Final curtain:<br />
The price of fame<br />
By 1967, aged 34 years, Joe Orton had established himself<br />
as a significant writer with a promising future. His success<br />
however put a terrible strain on his relationship with Halliwell,<br />
who was becoming increasingly jealous of his partner. He felt<br />
marginalised as Orton’s career took off and his own artistic<br />
efforts floundered. Halliwell also suffered from a sense of<br />
inadequacy due to Orton’s sexual promiscuity with other men.<br />
On 9 August 1967, unable to carry on and not wanting his<br />
partner to continue without him, Kenneth bludgeoned Joe to<br />
death with several hammer blows to the head. He then took his<br />
own life with an overdose of barbiturate pills. The couple were<br />
discovered the next morning by a chauffeur calling to collect<br />
Orton from their Noel Road flat.<br />
In memory: Commemorative plaque to Joe Orton<br />
at 25 Noel Road.<br />
Aftermath<br />
In a final twist to the tragic event, it was discovered that<br />
Halliwell had died first and, although unconscious, Orton had<br />
taken several hours to die. Kenneth Halliwell’s funeral was<br />
held on 17 August in Enfield and Joe Orton’s the day after at<br />
Golders Green Crematorium, where playwright Harold Pinter<br />
read the eulogy, concluding with, “He was a bloody marvellous<br />
writer.” It was later arranged for their ashes to be combined<br />
and buried together.<br />
Legacy<br />
Joe Orton’s public life lasted barely four years but his impact<br />
as an innovative playwright of international standing remains<br />
to this day. Regrettably the same cannot be said of Kenneth<br />
Halliwell, whose life was unfulfilled.<br />
A tragic loss: Joe Orton - playwright,<br />
‘collage’ artist and icon, 1966.<br />
Joe’s unique literary work is his legacy but, in typical<br />
Ortonesque fashion, the ‘guerrilla artwork’ that he and his<br />
partner-in-crime created when resident in Noel Road is key<br />
to that legacy. The surviving doctored library book covers go<br />
far beyond being simply historical items that were subjected<br />
to malicious damage. They are the catalysts that inadvertently<br />
activated an extraordinary playwright’s career and lasting<br />
reminders of the life and crimes of Joe Orton and Kenneth<br />
Halliwell in <strong>Islington</strong>.<br />
<strong>Islington</strong> Heritage Services, 2011<br />
Scene of the crime:<br />
25 Noel Road,<br />
9 August 1967.<br />
Final curtain:<br />
Daily Mirror, 10 August 1967