Matthew Horne entertains as Mr Sloane

The latest revival of Joe Orton's play, Entertaining Mr Sloane, which received its premiere on Friday evening at the Trafalgar Studios in London, has won plaudits from the London critics, with Matthew Horne (pictured with Imelda Staunton), best known for the hit BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey, being singled out for praise in the title role.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Charles Spencer commended 30-year-old Horne for revealing his "darker side in this wild, witty and heartless performance", saying that the actor delivered a "horny, bisexual hero" with "exactly the right air of drop-dead insolence and cheap glamour about him".

The Times's Benedict Nightingale said that what "Horne conveys very well is the character's psychological and physical ruthlessness: he visibly enjoys playing parlour power-games and shows a sadistic relish in beating Kath and Ed's dad to a senseless pulp".

Kath is the slatternly landlady, played by Imelda Staunton, and Ed is her son (Simon Paisley Day). The play deals with a grotesque sexual triangle between these two and Sloane and, under Nick Bagnall's direction, appears to have recaptured its original power to shock. Writes Nightingale: "I've never before seen a version of this play that pushed its comedy and violence to such limits."

Only the Guardian's Michael Billington sounded a note of caution about Horne. "Maybe there's something missing in Horne's performance of a young man who has murdered already and is motivated by self-interest only. Maybe he should look harder at the photo of Orton in the programme, lolling in front of the flat where he himself would be killed by his lover. He lacks the nonchalant charisma Orton had and Sloane needs."

 
 ·