What the Butler Saw (play)

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What the Butler Saw
Written by	Joe Orton
Characters	Dr Prentice Geraldine Barclay Mrs Prentice Nicholas Beckett Dr Rance Sergeant Match
Date of premiere	March 5, 1969
Original language	English
Genre	Farce
Setting	A room in a private clinic
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What the Butler Saw is a play by Joe Orton first produced on March 5, 1969, in London. The play was Orton's last before his death in 1967. The first public performance of the play - almost two years after Orton’s brutal murder - was reportedly barracked with cries of "filth!"^[1]

1 Plot
2 Original Production
3 Analysis
4 Awards
5 See also
6 References

[edit] 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 Gerladine 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 Nicholas Beckett. She therefore promises him the post as secretary, which adds further confusion. Soon, Geraldine is dressed like a boy and Nicholas is dressed like a girl, Winston Churchill is missing body parts and the doctor is digging himself further and further into trouble by piling up more and more ridiculous lies. 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."

[edit] Original Production

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 and featured the following cast:

Dr Prentice - Stanley Baxter
Geraldine Barclay - Julia Foster
Mrs Prentice - Coral Browne
Nicholas Beckett - Hayward Morse
Dr Rance - Ralph Richardson
Sergant Match - Peter Bayliss

[edit] 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.

It can 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.