Yours Faithfully

On Sunday 16 July Yours Faithfully, Edna Welthorpe (Mrs) premiered at Latitude Festival in a special tribute to legendary playwright Joe Orton, with readings by Orton’s sister Leonie Orton, filmmaker Chris Shepherd, Dr Emma Parker from the University of Leicester and comedians John-Luke Roberts and Robin Ince.

The film will  next be screened at The Little Theatre in Leicester on 9 August to mark the 50th anniversary of Joe Orton’s death at the very venue where Orton himself once performed. Actor Frances Barber will read Orton’s Edna Welthorpe letters, Leonie will Orton will share memories of her brother, and comedians David Quantick and Graham Fellows (John Shuttleworth) will discuss Orton’s legacy.

Yours Faithfully, Edna Welthorpe (Mrs) is an animated short by award-winning director Chris Shepherd and produced by yours truly. The film is based on Orton’s Edna Welthorpe letters, letters of complaint Orton wrote under the pseudonym of Edna Welthorpe to satirise snobbery and moral conservatism. The visual style is also inspired by the collages that Orton and his partner Kenneth Halliwell once defaced library books with.