Prick Up Your Ears
Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 British film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the 1978 biography by John Lahr. The film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr, and Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay.
Plot
Islington, 9 August 1967. Literary agent Peggy Ramsay knocks on the door of playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell, but nobody opens. She calls the police. They find the corpses of the two men. A decade later theatre critic John Lahr visits Peggy Ramsay because he wants to write Orton's biography. They find Orton's diaries, and Peggy tells Lahr about Orton's life.
Cast
- Alfred Molina
- Angus MacKay
- Charles McKeown
- Frances Barber
- Gary Oldman
- Jonathan Phillips
- Julie Walters
- Karl Johnson
- Lindsay Duncan
- Margaret Tyzack
- Michael Müller
- Neil Dudgeon
- Neville Smith
- Noel Davis
- Richard Wilson
- Sean Pertwee
- Selina Cadell
- Sian Thomas
- Steven Mackintosh
- Vanessa Redgrave
- Wallace Shawn
More details
| author | Alan Bennett |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | England |
| director | Stephen Frears |
| genre | drama |
| keywords | beatles islington literary agent married couple meet peggy ramsay royal academy of dramatic arts suicide write |
| musicBy | Stanley Myers |
| producer | Andrew Brown |
| productionCompany | Zenith Productions |
| publisher | Curzon Film |
| theme | biographical drama independent lgbt-related |