ABSTRACT
The momentous month in 1950 in which Joe Orton entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, met his life-long partner (and eventual murderer) Kenneth Halliwell, and moved in with him and became his lover is recorded in a diary kept over this period that amounts, in total, to 191 words, the length of one of Cheever's shortest paragraphs. The Ortonesque is typically defined in terms of dramatic action. Lahr defines the adjective as shorthand for "scenes of macabre outrageousness"; Maurice Charney, in his study of Joe Orton for Macmillan's Modern Dramatists series, describes the Ortonesque as "a peculiar mixture of farce and outrageousness." Orton's treatment of his mother's death can be compared to White's treatment of her friend Roberta's death, or Cheever's treatment of his first son's birth, events which are given a momentous weight by the diarists.
