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#2728

Sarah Manton and Charles Shaughnessy in 'What the Butler Saw' at the Mark Taper Forum.

Photo by Craig Schwartz.

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What the Butler Saw

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Nov 12 – Dec 21, 2014

#WhatTheButlerSaw
Mark Taper Forum

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.

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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.