Joe Orton’s “Loot,” currently playing at the Vortex Theatre, is a British play which is perfectly relevant to modern day Albuquerque.
Because Albuquerque is dealing with its own police shootings and alleged abuse by authority, the themes of “Loot” match our city near perfectly.
It’s a farcical comedy dripping with loathing of authority: the play is Orton’s platform for protesting the harsh, conservative Britain of the 1960s. The play’s villain is a brutal police officer, misusing his power and authority in a dark, witty performance by Neil Faulconbridge, yet Orton never romanticizes the crooks the police are pursuing.
Hal, played by Michael Weppler, and Dennis, played by Bryan Chapman, are responsible for a bank robbery that serves as catalyst for the story and are thorough low-lifes. Both characters are daft (an English term for silly and stupid) in their own way, and Chapman especially plays up the humor in his characters’ simple desires. Weppler, though, falls short of Chapman’s performance.
The play really thrives when Hal uses his mother’s funeral as a cover for the aftermath of the robbery. John Hardman, who plays the bereaved, elderly husband McLeavy, and Christy Lopez, who plays his gold-digging, murderous nurse Fay, threaten to steal the show.
Lopez mines her character’s shallow ambition and murderous inclinations for comedic gold, and Hardman clowns grandly, huffing and contorting to great success.
The play struggles with pace at first, but the cast eventually hits its stride, earning successive guffaws. When the humor diminishes, Faulconbridge’s dark presence as Office Truscott adds a deeper layer to the proceedings.
Initially claiming to be “from the water council,” Truscott is clearly an authority figure concerned with far more than leaky pipes. As his treatment of the thieves progresses from underhanded to outright violent, he earns more sympathy for them than they ever earn by themselves.
“Loot” offers an intriguing marriage of classic British farce and passionate social commentary. The play suggests that while theft is criminal, abusing the power to protect is always worse — a message that many Albuquerque denizens will find all too familiar.
“Loot”
by Joe Orton
The Vortex Theatre
2004½ Central Ave. S.E
Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.
Sundays at 2 p.m.
Through Oct. 2
general admission $15
student rush $10
VortexABQ.org
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