LOOT: Fay

Question 1

FAY as DECEPTIVE: (Costumes)
“in a nurse’s uniform”

Answer 1

ROLES
-> She changes the costume the most! Shows
deception, highlighted by the style of artistic
expression:
-> Theatre - actress pretending to be someone
pretending to be someone else.
-> Fay criticises the dead woman for having “a
deceitful nature”, when she herself is posing -
disrespect to the dead (see sentimentality later).
NURSE
-> Women - should do the right thing/represent the
ideal of “women as innate nurturers and ‘the gentle
sex’” (Emma Parker).
-> Fay -> outward look of nurturer/benevolent
healthcare professional:
-> “the death of a patient terminates my contract” ->
payed to care, mocking over-reverence of the
dying/dead.
- Seemingly disrespectful, given the funeral setting -
coffin onstage.
- Sentimentality/Over-reverence are taught and
accepted - they become mere performative shows,
like how Fay “brought [McLeavy] a flower.
- “Death can be very tragic for those who are left”
-> Murderous - hides her true sinister duplicity
through costume.

Question 2

FAY as PERFORMATIVE: (Appearances)
1. “one in a million”
2. “a court case with my hairdresser”
SUMMARY:
- “Show your emotions in public or not at all”

Answer 2

1. TV language, cliché -> insincerity in the things said.
   -> Despite funeral scene, + despite talking to a man
   “in morning” (already a show - he’s in a role).
   2.
   -> Non-sensical progression - obsessive vanity, appearances.
   -> Short sentences:
   
   • No emotion.
   • Scripted/rehearsed - performative, manipulative.
     CONTEXT
     Orton’s Attitude to Death:
     - eg. Using his own dead mother’s teeth as a prop.

Question 3

RELIGION:
1. “Not only firearms, but family-planning equipment”.
2. “had euthanasia not been against my religion…I decided to murder her”.
3. “I shall spend a quiet hour with my rosary after tea”

OVERALL:
-> Made absurd by Dennis, who exposes the guises of the clergy: “priest effing and blinding”
-> Reduced to a series of logistical problems by McLeavy: “Mrs McLeavy is keeping her Maker waiting”
-> Ridiculous placement of/lines drawn by religious sensibility shown by Hal: “Aren’t we committing some kind of unforgivable sin?”…“(He sits astride the coffin)”.
-> Props of a rosary and crucifix used - a meta-comment on superficiality?

• ORTON: … puts forward “a mocking response to the contemporary world”.

Answer 3

1. Juxtaposes supposed dangers, showing how, in Catholicism, these two things are considered equal - mocks religion.
2. Manipulates her faith -> finding loopholes in religious morality and sensibility, playing on it for her own gain.
   
   • Demonstrates religion’s capability to be easily
     abused, highlighting Orton’s sense of it being an
     absurd part of society.
   • Highlights Fay’s amoral and manipulative nature.
3. Religion as purely performative - Quotidian farce.
   
   • Mocks religion -> she can be forgiven for murder this
     way?!?

Question 4

Fay as DECEPTIVE -> Continued…
1. The screen
2. “Phyllis”
3. “People would talk. We must keep up appearances.”

YET! Undeniably highly intelligent, despite misogyny present on stage:
T: “My wife is a woman. Intelligence doesn’t really enter into the matter.”

Answer 4

1. Physical representation of deception - hiding the criminal activity.
2. Crude imagery of her real name - suggests syphilis (due to the common sound - (!) line is spoken aloud)
   -> If left untreated, syphilis begins to show on one’s
   face, suggesting a sense of it being a mark of
   deception Fay is now beginning to show.
3. Slogan of British society.
   -> ABSOLUTELY NO CHANGE - return to a normal, but in which the corruption present in the beginning has been exposed, but not fixed/punished.
   
   • Corruption is normal in British society - the only
     difference by the end of the play is that we, the British
     public, are able to see it (Orton’s aim/hope).
   • ORTONESQUE FARCE!!!

OVERALL CONTEXT:
- Typical community of 1930s and 1940s Leicester - Orton was surrounded by this highly performative way of life - a constant commenting on and manipulation of appearance, in order to be viewed a certain way by wider society.