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What the Butler Saw
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What the Butler Saw
Don't you love farce? It’s your typical boy-meets-girl story. Only the boy is a wily psychoanalyst married to a nymphomaniac. And the girl is his secretary…once she passes a not-so-routine physical. Mix in a little blackmail, a lot of sexual innuendo, a government inspector, a lusty bellboy and voilà!
This classic comic masterpiece has all the ingredients of a thoroughly enjoyable romp: manic action, twisting plotlines, mistaken identities, slamming doors, disappearing clothes, and, above all, Orton’s subversive wit, breakneck dialogue and outrageous lack of appropriateness.
Decried as scandalous in 1969 for its character’s raging libidos and rampant mockery of morality, What the Butler Saw is a timeless tale of sex and repression in a culture gone mad (it takes place in a mental hospital, after all), never slowing down long enough to let you catch your breath from laughter.
Performance Length
Approx. two hours, including one intermission.
Be Aware
Recommended for audiences ages 16+
Brief nudity and gun shots.
Children 6 and under who may cry or fidget are never admitted.
Credits
- By
- Joe Orton
- Directed by
- John Tillinger
- Set Design by
- James Noone
- Costume Design by
- Laurie Churba Kohn
- Lighting Design by
- Ken Billington and John McKernon
- Sound Design by
- John Gromada
- Wigs and Hair by
- Carol F. Doran
- With
- Frances Barber
- Sarah Manton
- Angus McEwan
- Rod McLachlan
- Charles Shaughnessy
- Paxton Whitehead