By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Monday 22 September, opens 24 September and runs through 8 November 2025 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Stephens plays the titular Sloane, a would-be lodger, interviewed by Outhwaite’s (Stepping Out, Vaudeville Theatre) lonely landlady Kath who reveals she had an illegitimate son she gave up for adoption who would be Sloane’s age now.

• Read on for reasons including how this production is most likely to be remembered for its excruciating turn by Outhwaite who is unforgettable

It’s Orton’s natural and provocative language that first draws you in to this revival of his 1964 comedy drama with a flirtatious Kath mentioning to Sloane: ‘I’m in the rude under this dress. I tell you because you’re bound to have noticed.’

Or: ‘Tell him to put some trousers on. Cantering around the house with a bare bum… Can’t leave you alone for five minutes.’

Rizzle Kick Jordan Stephens makes his theatre debut here and convinces as a young man with fluid sexuality, a swarthy naked physicality and a dark past with both charisma but also the propensity for violence if things don’t go his way.

Kath’s closeted brother Ed, a comic turn by Daniel Cerqueira, is initially wary of the idea of Sloane as lodger but eventually comes around and even offers him a job as his driver in uniform including leather cap.

No one heeds the advice of Christopher Fairbanks’ ‘dada’, who hasn’t spoken to son Ed for 20 years after bursting in on him unannounced entertaining a young male friend, who thinks he recognises Sloane and suspects him of murder.

This Sloane is directed by Nadia Fall, this venue’s new artistic director, and launches her 1st season and she says of it in the programme: ‘For me it’s a gross underestimation to think of Orton’s work as a play equivalent to pulling down someone’s trousers because what I think he actually achieves is the pulling off of masks.’

She gives us a stage almost in the round littered with props also hung from the ceiling illustrating the near rubbish dump location of Kath’s home.

Ultimately Fall’s Sloane doesn’t quite deliver on its early promise but it remains a colourful and hugely entertaining work which offers little redemption for its characters or hope at its close.

It’s most likely to be remembered for its excruciating turn by Outhwaite who is unforgettable in a role where she awkwardly seeks to ensure Sloane is trapped into a domestic hell with her.

As a theatrical debut, Stephens draws on the success of his TV and film past rather than his pop music stardom and his performance ensures stage audiences will continue to want more from him.

• Main pictures courtesy Young Vic Tickets
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