Experience a ground-breaking black comedy, interpreted by an acclaimed English-language theatre company in the intimate Badhuistheater in Amsterdam.
Swinging Sixties Taboos
The swinging sixties were not swinging for everybody, and certainly not for the characters in the pivotal play Entertaining Mr. Sloane. The racy play explores themes of infatuation, homosexuality, criminality and jealousy.
About the production
Entertaining Mr Sloane at the Badhuistheater is directed by Mike Manicardi with a wonderful cast who have previously acted in other productions at the Badhuistheater, such as Blackadder, ‘Allo ‘Allo and the Sean O’ Casey Dublin Trilogy of Plays.
About the Badhuistheater
Badhuistheater International is a very dynamic English-language theatre company made up of mostly expats who have given multiple sold-out performances, led by British actor, writer and theatre director Mike Manicardi.
The theatre is housed in a former bath house on the east side of Amsterdam, which has been listed as a Dutch national monument, built in the distinctive Amsterdamse school style of architecture.
About the play
Entertaining Mr. Sloane tells the story of a middle-aged woman Kath and her brother Ed who become infatuated with Kath’s house guest Mr. Sloane. Kath's house, located at the edge of a rubbish dump, becomes a scene of debauchery, recklessness and suspicion. Intriguing details of the handsome visitor's past pique the interest of the brother and sister, but fail to impress their elderly, almost-blind father, whose fate does not have a positive outlook.
This risqué play is regarded as a true masterpiece. Premiered in 1964, the same year homosexuality was decriminalised in Britain, Entertaining Mr Sloane was met with outrage in the beginning.
Joe Orton wrote this sex comedy during a time in which himself and his partner would have been deemed criminals. Entertaining Mr. Sloane succeeded in breaking down boundaries and is now whole-heartedly established as part of the modern theatre repertoire.