What the Butler Saw (1969) Play by Joe Orton

There are no butlers in What the Butler Saw, the play the English writer Joe Orton completed only weeks before he was murdered in 1967. Orton’s title, with its prurient whiff of Edwardian peep shows, is generic: it announces a low farce rife with fallen trousers, sexual indiscretions, mistaken identities, lewd puns.

But to settle for calling Orton’s comedy funny is not to do it justice. In this work, the author of Entertaining Mr. Sloane and Loot wrote that rare thing, a truly revolutionary play. Orton is scrupulous in honoring the rules of classic farce - no small achievement in itself - and yet he subversively uses those rules to demolish the even stricter rules governing the civilization beyond the theater’s walls. What the Butler Saw undermines psychiatry, religion, marriage, government, definitions of gender and even simple language. By the time he reaches his breathless conclusion, Orton has transported us to a Cloudcuckooland of his own fiercely imagined invention. It’s a place where girls have switched identities (and wardrobes) with boys, yes can mean no, and inmates are freely running the asylum.

Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw has played to thousands of theatre goes all around the world. There has been countless productions, which continue today with many new productions every year. Far to may to be listed, Joe Orton can be very proud of his works, they still make us loved to laugh.

 

Productions

 

The original production was staged at the Queen’s Theatre by Lewenstein-Delfont Productions Ltd and H. M. Tennent Ltd and opened on 5 March 1969. The production was directed by Robert Chetwyn and designed by Hutchinson Scott

 

Plot

 

The play consists of two acts, and revolves around a Dr. Prentice, a psychiatrist attempting to seduce his attractive prospective secretary, Geraldine Barclay. The play opens with the doctor examining Geraldine Barclay in a job interview. As part of the interview, he convinces her to undress. The situation becomes more intense during Dr. Prentice’s supposed “interview” with Geraldine Barclay when Mrs Prentice enters. When his wife enters, he attempts to cover up his activity by hiding the girl behind a curtain. His wife, however, is also being seduced and blackmailed by a Nicholas Beckett. She therefore promises Nicholas the post as secretary, which adds further confusion, including Nicholas and Geraldine dressing as the opposite sex. Dr. Prentice’s clinic is then faced by a government inspection. The inspection, led by Dr. Rance, reveals the chaos in the clinic. Dr. Rance talks about how he will use the situation to develop a new book: “The final chapters of my book are knitting together: incest, buggery, outrageous women and strange love-cults catering for depraved appetites. All the fashionable bric-a-brac.” A penis (“the missing parts of Sir Winston Churchill”) is held aloft in the climactic scene.

 

Cast Lists

 

Opening Night Cast 1969 UK	Opening Night Cast 1979 Off B’WAY	Opening Night Cast 1981 Off B’WAY	Opening Night Cast 1989 Off B’WAY
Coral Browne - Mrs Prentice Hayward Morse - Nicholas Beckett Ralph Richardson - Dr. Rance Peter Bayliss - Sergant Match	Diana Davilla ….Geraldine Barclay Jan Farrand ….Mrs. Prentice Laurence Luckinbill ….Dr. Prentice Charles Murphy ….Nicholas Beckett Tom Rosqui ….Sergeant Match Lucian Scott ….Dr. Rance	le Chance du Rand ….Mrs. Prentice Brandon Brady ….Sergeant Match Jonathan Goldwater ….Nicolas Beckett George Lloyd ….Dr. Rance Harry Reems ….Dr. Prentice Holly Woodlawn …. Geraldine Barclay	Charles Keating ….Dr. Prentice Joseph Maher ….Dr. Rance Bruce Norris ….Nicolas Beckett Carole Shelley ….Mrs. Prentice Patrick Tull ….Sergeant Match Joanne Whalley-Kilmer ….Geraldine Barclay

 

Poster Art

 

Run History

 

Opening & Closing Dates	Type & Version	Theatre
Mar 03, 1969 -	Play / Original	Queen’s Theatre, London UK
May 04, 1970-15 Nov, 1970	Play / Original	McAlpine Rooftop Theatre, NY,USA

 

Video

 

 

Analysis

 

The play incorporates a combination of British dry humour and seamier contents. For example, at one point, the police sergeant (a staple of this genre) says, “During that period he is alleged to have misconducted himself with a party of school children.” Later, the sergeant accuses “Marriage excuses no one from the freaks roll-call.” At the same time, it is typical of the style:

Mrs. Prentice: “You told Dr. Rance that she was burning the golliwogs. Was that a lie?” Prentice: “It may have been. I can’t remember.” It could be argued that the social change that Dr. Prentice’s psychology is drawn against manifests itself throughout the play, in particular social attitudes towards sexuality. Furthermore, it could be argued that the play is a story about the way men and women feel and communicate, and their desire for power. For example, one of Orton’s characters calls it a “Graeco-Roman hallucination”. The on-stage visions take their themes from the old tragedies. Caligula and Jocasta rest comfortably together in the genealogy of the farce. Cinema-goers will recognise situations used by Orton’s contemporaries, the Carry On comedians of the late 1960s. For example, Carry On Doctor was showing whilst the play was being written in 1967

 

References

1. Paul Taylor (26 July 2005). “Reviews: Theatre - What the Butler Saw Hampstead Theatre London HHH”. The Independent. Archived from the original on 2008-06-14. Retrieved 2008-11-04.

2. A Subversive Farce From Joe Orton What the Butler Saw NYC Times

3.What the Butler Saw at the Internet off-Broadway Database

4.What the Butler Saw (film) at the Internet Movie Database