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"Joe Orton's last play, What the Butler Saw, will live to be accepted as a comedy classic of English literature" (Sunday Telegraph) The chase is on in this breakneck comedy of licensed insanity, from the moment when Dr Prentice, a psychoanalyst interviewing a prospective secretary, instructs her to undress. The plot of What the Butler Saw contains enough twists and turns, mishaps and changes of fortune, coincidences and lunatic logic to furnish three or four conventional comedies. But however the six characters in search of a plot lose the thread of the action - their wits or their clothes - their verbal self-possession never deserts them. Hailed as a modern comedy every bit as good as Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Orton's play is regularly produced, read and studied. What the Butler Saw was Orton's final play."He is the Oscar Wilde of Welfare State gentility" (Observer)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What the Butler Saw is definitely the pinnacle of Joe Orton's humour; it was the last play before he was brutally murdered one year later.
The storyline is far too difficult to explain, but in very vague summary, it concerns a series of mistaken identities and one-liners that happen in a psychiatrist's office when an adulterous seedy affair with his potential secretary goes horribly wrong.
The play begins in a traditional note with a basic set up of mistaken identity beginning the comedy, however the introduction of more characters and complications means the plot gets thicker and more humorous by the minute. The farce becomes more and more riotously funny, and twist follows twist until the climactic end that makes a mockery of the obligatory resolution that occurs at the end of normal farces.
Throughout the play, the comedy becomes darker and more sinister, encompassing the themes of rape, incest, adultery and the mal treatment of the mentally ill.
This is one of few play scripts that made me laugh out loud when reading it, and when I saw it performed the whole audience laughed themselves hoarse and snorted like demented whales the whole way through. This is possibly best comic play this century and should easily measure up to Coward and Wilde in the greatest humour of all time.
The storyline is far too difficult to explain, but in very vague summary, it concerns a series of mistaken identities and one-liners that happen in a psychiatrist's office when an adulterous seedy affair with his potential secretary goes horribly wrong.
The play begins in a traditional note with a basic set up of mistaken identity beginning the comedy, however the introduction of more characters and complications means the plot gets thicker and more humorous by the minute. The farce becomes more and more riotously funny, and twist follows twist until the climactic end that makes a mockery of the obligatory resolution that occurs at the end of normal farces.
Throughout the play, the comedy becomes darker and more sinister, encompassing the themes of rape, incest, adultery and the mal treatment of the mentally ill.
This is one of few play scripts that made me laugh out loud when reading it, and when I saw it performed the whole audience laughed themselves hoarse and snorted like demented whales the whole way through. This is possibly best comic play this century and should easily measure up to Coward and Wilde in the greatest humour of all time.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
WHAT THE BUTLER SAW is a play that belongs on a shelf with the greatest comedies ever written in English. A summary of the plot can never do it justice because the "plot" ( such as it is) merely functions as a frame to hang Orton's utterly brilliant words. If Orton had lived he might have gone on to establish himself as the undisputed master of English comedy. As it is, his name belongs with Wilde and Sheridan. Today, in 2000, Orton's work is tragically lettle-known. WHAT THE BUTLER SAW ( along with LOOT) should be studied in college drama writing classes as a work of the highest comic art. WHAT THE BUTLER SAW should, like all plays, be experienced on a stage. It is, however, a work that maintains its brilliance in written form. It would be a better world if the play were read by everyone. Frank Gannon11/20/2000
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you do not read or see any other Orton play, you should not pass on this one. I saw it in the local theater and they pretty much followed the script. I do not want to go into detail as the surprises; twists and dialog are what make the play. However this is a comedy similar to Oscar Wilde's style in the fact that it is a series of mismaners with unique situations and plot twists.
A little info:
The first London performance of "What the butler saw" was at the Queen's Theatre by Lewstein-Delfont Productions Ltd. And H.M. Tennent Ltd. On 5 Mar 1969.
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