Madcap Mystery: Desert Ensemble’s Production of ‘Loot’ Will Keep You Confused—in a Hilarious Way

Producers Shawn Abramowitz and Jerome Elliott Moskowitz have interestingly chosen a vintage British mystery/comedy to start Desert Ensemble Theatre’s new season of plays at the Palm Springs Cultural Center: Joe Orton’s Loot (a great word!).

I saw my first British mystery/comedy in London, where The Mousetrap had already been running for 27 years at that point—27 years! It was inconceivable that a play could run that long. I mean, a few performances of a play were all we ever did. (The Mousetrap is still running; in fact, it is the longest-running play in the world, and has been on the West End continuously since 1952, other than a 14-month COVID-19 break.) It established the format that still exists for this kind of show—and it’s clear The Mousetrap influenced Orton when he wrote Loot, a dark-comedy farce that premiered in 1965.

The play—both acts (and yes, there is an intermission)—takes place during a day of mourning for the upper-class McLeavy family; the wife/mother of this small but elegant clan has passed away and is about to be buried. We meet the late lady’s nurse, Fay, who wears a ghastly blonde wig and is trying to manipulate the now-bereaved husband into either letting her go or marrying her. We discover that she has been … how shall I put this … married before. Like, seven times in the last decade.

The McLeavy son and heir, Hal, is clearly a mess, but not because he is missing his mother. He shows up wearing his perpetual frown, and announces that he plans to go abroad with his friend Dennis—a lower-class creature with a mushy kind-of-Cockney accent, who has evidently just influenced Harold to help rob a nearby bank, a crime which everyone is talking about.

There is always a detective or policeman to muck up or advance the plot and provide a contrast to all the ne’er-do-wells, and ours is Truscott, thinking he is cleverly disguised as a Water Board investigator, even though he is wearing a tattletale trench coat which whispers that he is really a Scotland Yard man.

Are you confused yet? Well, just wait until you see the play. 

Fay, the only female in the cast, is played by Tessa Gregory-Walker. Interestingly, she is also the properties designer, a huge job in this tricky show—and she is actually British! So the accent is real, and her facial expressions are delightful as she shows us what she is really thinking. She is in almost every scene, and she has interpreted her script beautifully. We see her versatility as she transfers her focus from one man to another.

The father of the McLeavy family is played by Shel Safir. He blithely assumes he will inherit everything from his wife and is confident in his role as the family patriarch. This all changes when, on the way to the funeral, he is in a car accident, which makes everything different—from his wardrobe to his attitude. His clear speech is most appreciated in this day and age, and he is very British-like in the way he emotionally distances himself from his son.

The son, Hal, is thoughtfully played by Alex Price. He captures the self-involvement of “only” children and makes the role of this young man into a special one. We see him occasionally trying to be social, but his only true interest is himself. He actually attempts to flash occasional smiles through his constant frowning, but they vanish quickly.

Jason Reale plays Dennis, who clearly has a criminal background and obviously is willing to take advantage of anyone. Oddly enough, he is tolerated by everyone, and even occasionally flirted with by Fay. Everything about him, even his clothes, separates him from the others, and his peculiar accent and speech style blabs his lack of status. This may mean little to us in America, but in Britain at that time, it was vital.

Truscott is played by Charles Harvey, who dominates the stage every time he steps on it. He has the most difficult lines, yet he handles them beautifully. He puffs constantly on his unlit pipe. I couldn’t help wondering about his timing and his many pauses—but his blustery performance was delicious.

Larry Martin makes a very noisy entrance right at the end of the play as Meadows, an often-referred-to policeman. However, he has been in the play all along, and very nearly steals the show by silently playing the corpse of Mrs. McLeavy. If that sounds too peculiar to be believed, then you just have to see this production. Some of his choices are hilarious; the contrast between his playing the exuberant policeman and the dead Mummy are very funny.

The script is peppered with delightful British phrases, such as describing a photo that is “three Popes out of date,” and a phrase that always sends me into hysterics, “trod upon.” (Any P.G. Wodehouse readers out there?) However, there is a lot of writing about Catholicism, especially opposed to Protestantism, and it struck me as odd in this day and age. Maybe it was intended to be amusing, but it felt uncomfortably out of place every time it came up.

Director Michael Pacas had his work cut out for him with this play. The time seemed to go fast, which is an indication that the pace is good. Moving a rather large cast around on a rather small stage is always a challenge, and there were a few times when the upstage characters were unfortunately masked by the downstage ones.

However, the problems in Loot are small. The play is confusing and overwhelming—as these plays are supposed to be. The scene at the end with all the confessions just might leave you even more confuddled than you expected. But it’s all good fun, and old-fashioned, and definitely weird. You will enjoy it very much!

Desert Ensemble Theatre’s production of Loot will be performed at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, through Sunday, Nov. 24, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 E. Baristo Road, in Palm Springs. Tickets are $40. For tickets or more information, call 760-565-2476, or visit www.desertensembletheatre.org.