What the Butler Saw (Modern Classics)

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I read this one only because of a set of pictures I ran across one day featuring an actor I admire, taken when he was very young and performing in this play. And I simply had to know what the hell was happening in this play for those pictures to be taken. The production was done in the days before YouTube; and anyway YouTube recordings of plays--especially whole plays-- are relatively rare. So the only choice I had was to read the thing, and miraculously I could do that through our library. I don't usually read plays for fun. I love seeing plays, and I should do more of it, but reading them...it's sort of like being on a literary diet, where all you are offered to eat is tough lean meats and veggies. You eat them, and are still hungry. And because it's diet food, it all needs salt and barely tastes like anything. In 1987 the play was adapted for BBC2's Theatre Night series. First transmitted on 24 May, it was produced by Shaun Sutton and directed by Barry Davis. After a number of unsuccessful minor works, Entertaining Mr Sloane was Orton's first major script but the play received mixed response when it opened in 1963. In later venues however, it was voted Best New British Play by Variety's London Critics, moved to Broadway and Orton had his first taste of major success. A revival at London's Royal Court Theatre, directed by Lindsay Anderson, opened in July 1975 and transferred to the Whitehall Theatre the following month. [4] Cast

Butler Saw by Joe Orton | Goodreads What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton | Goodreads

Peter Corrigan (reminiscent of a cross between Frankie Howerd and Simon Callow) was highly entertaining, blustering and leering his incorrigible way through the mayhem. Sarah Parnell was also excellent as his wife, the perfect 'straight woman' as his foil, showing great skill with visual humour and ideal timing. After reading 20% of the play I stopped. The ongoing “joke” was a doctor sexually manipulating and coercing a young woman interviewing to be his secretary. Using his power to get her to undress when she doesn’t want to. Then when a senior doctor arrives to examine his practice and finds the naked woman, he lies and tells him she is one of his mental patients to avoid accountability. When she tries to protest she is then sectioned by the senior doctor who begins asking her immediately if she enjoyed her father sexually abusing her and when she says he didn’t abuse her at all he tells her he did and she just has to admit it to herself. This is where I stopped.

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In 1966, Orton began again to write a diary (something he had started earlier in life). These later chapters, whilst being a frank and open account of his life, are also well-crafted literary works. They record, among other things the difficulties he experienced in his relationship with Halliwell, but give no clue that the nature of his death at the age of 34, could have been foreseen. The facts of the matter are that in August 1967, Halliwell killed him by repeatedly hitting him about the head with a hammer. Halliwell then took his own life with an overdose and 2 lives and a promising career were brought to an untimely end. My wife is a nymphomaniac. Consequently like the Holy Grail, she is ardently sought after by young men. Watch the boundaries of sexology break down when an everyday erotic dalliance gets totally out of hand. See nubile bodies stripped to the bare minimum before your very eyes. And what indeed does the butler see? You must await the very private and personal appearance of the Right Hon. Winston Churchill to find out. "The sane must appear as strange to the mad, as the mad to the sane" says the sinister and questionable Dr Rance. Fortunately, we have a clear-eyed view of the distinction, thanks to lucid performances and good team-work from David Penrose, Jude Salmon, Jane Hart, David Brown, Peter Corrigan and Peter Colley. Pete Holding and the stage crew ensured a smooth run though a mad, mad world with a beautifully clean and clinical set. Orton wrote Funeral Games from July to November 1966 for a 1967 Rediffusion series, The Seven Deadly Virtues, It dealt with charity--especially Christian charity—in a confusion of adultery and murder. Rediffusion did not use the play; instead, it was made as one of the first productions of the new ITV company Yorkshire Television, and broadcast on 26 August 1968. Dr. Prentice tries to listen to Geraldine and ask the right questions. She tells him that she doesn’t know who her real parents are, and it’s always bothered her. Dr. Prentice thinks she’s had a terrible time, but he takes advantage of this. He tells her that she’s an ideal candidate for the job, but the interview has a few stages. Intrigued, Geraldine keeps listening.

What the Butler Saw | play by Orton | Britannica

There are only two acts in What the Butler Saw, but the action is continuous throughout and the division is more for stage convenience than a plot break or set changes. The play is set primarily in the examination room within a private clinic. Orton and Halliwell wrote a number of unsuccessful works together but achieved bizarre notoriety in 1962 when they were convicted and imprisoned for the seemingly innocuous crime of defacing library books. The court passed down a harsh, 6-month sentence for what was ostensibly a prank. However, in an age where homosexuality was still illegal, the fact that the prank included pasting semi-erotic pictures on to covers of what they considered to be 'very dull' books probably influenced the judiciary. Orton later commented that they had been persecuted harshly because they had been discovered to be gay men openly living together. Also medical professionals taking advantage of their power is just too close to reality in the present. This year for us, in the Bench, has been an epic journey spanning five decades. The idea to perform a play from each decade of the company's existence as a celebration of our 40th anniversary has allowed us to do what we do best, present exciting and challenging theatre. It has also allowed us the opportunity to present a world premiere of a play written specifically for our 'State of the Nation' theme. In 1995, a Royal National Theatre production of the play premiered in February at the RNT's Lyttelton Theatre and then went on tour prior to returning to the RNT repertoire. Phyllida Lloyd directed the play. [9] CastThere's a mind-set to Joe Orton's work that makes me think he died at exactly the right time. I suspect the novelty of his plays wouldn't have lasted much beyond his three great pieces, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Loot and What The Butler Saw, all peopled with grotesques, filled with stylised language and peppered with Orton's biting, satiric but ultimately challenging and uncomfortable wit. The last of these - What The Butler Saw - is The Bench's latest performance and generally it's fine stuff. There was a further revival in 2012 at the Vaudeville Theatre, directed by Sean Foley, which ran from 16 May to 25 August. [10] Cast