PRICK UP YOUR EARS is the tragic, true story of flamboyant British playwright Joe Orton, from his days as a drama student, through his meteoric rise to fame in British theatre, to his violent death at the hands of his envious lover Kenneth Halliwell. Gary Oldman portrays the rebellious Orton, who rose to success in the 1960s with his plays, LOOT and WHAT THE BUTLER SAW. Orton charmed theatrical society while living illegally as a homosexual, dangerously taking lovers and street hustlers, and living with his long-term collaborator Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina) whose rage and envy prompted him to violently murder Orton in 1967.