The Visa Affair [Drama On 3]

In 1965 Joe Orton visited the American Embassy in London to get a visa to attend the Broadway production of his outrageous West End hit 'Entertaining Mr Sloane' and was caught up in a Kafkaesque world of oppression and paranoia. He was forced into absurd interrogations and accused of 'moral turpitude.' In the mid-1960s Orton was one of the most talked about new playwrights of the decade - even attracting the attention of the Beatles, who asked him to write them a new film.

Writer Jake Arnott has uncovered a previously unpublished story by Orton about his this encounter. This story becomes the heart of a new drama, in which Arnott also draws on letters, archive, newspaper reports and personal testimony to create a darkly comic drama revealing Orton's life and the world that he lived in.

Orton's first commission as a playwright was from Radio 3's predecessor the Third Programme in 1964 and this new play was originally commissioned as part of the station's 70th season in October 2016, celebrating seven decades of pioneering music and culture.

In 'The Visa Affair', Orton has just found success in the UK after years of obscurity, and Broadway beckons, but events in his past threaten his American dream. As embassy staff challenge him about his criminal record we follow a labyrinthine struggle as Joe is forced to defer to authority, deny his sexuality, and to look again at his subversive acts and how they affected his writing and work.

Throughout, Orton plays a game of hide and seek with bureaucracy - evading its surveillance whilst revealing its absurdity.

Orton's own narrative voice forms the heart of this drama. It is a rich source of character, dialogue and unfolding plot. Writer Jake Arnott says: 'Though his work often seems surreal, Orton always insisted that what he wrote was reality. This is real. What excites me about this project is the opportunity to dramatise a hidden work: Orton's own encounter with the kind of absurd bureaucracy that he brilliantly depicts in his plays.

Cast

Joe Orton - Russell Tovey

Kenneth Halliwell - Tom Burke

Miss Boynes - Alison Steadman

Peggy Ramsey - Frances Barber

Ensemble cast played by Kerry Shale, Nigel Anthony, Stephen Critchlow, Alison Steadman and Frances Barber

‘The Visa Affair' by Jake Arnott is based on the original story by Joe Orton.

Additional material contributed by Joe's sister Leonie Barnett.

Director: Marilyn Imrie

Producer: Jo Coombs

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3

In 1965, Joe Orton has a Kafkaesque encounter at the American Embassy.