I don't usually read plays for fun. I love seeing plays, and I should do more of it, but reading them...it's sort of like being on a literary diet, where all you are offered to eat is tough lean meats and veggies. You eat them, and are still hungry. And because it's diet food, it all needs salt and barely tastes like anything.

What The Butler Saw - Bloomsbury Publishing What The Butler Saw - Bloomsbury Publishing

On 9 August 1967, Orton's lover Kenneth Halliwell bludgeoned 34-year-old Orton to death at his home in Islington, London, with a hammer and then committed suicide with an overdose of Nembutal tablets. Investigators determined that Halliwell died first, because Orton's body was still warm. Orton was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium, his coffin brought into the chapel to The Beatles song "A Day in the Life". Harold Pinter read the eulogy saying "He was a bloody marvellous writer." The Complete Plays : Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Loot, What the Butler Saw, The Ruffian on the Stair, The Erpingham Camp, Funeral Games & The Good and Faithful Servant A revival at London's Hampstead Theatre, directed by John Tillinger, opened in November 1990 and transferred to the Wyndham's Theatre in January 1991. [6] Cast It's the swinging sixties and Dr. Prentice wants to 'let it all hang out', but unfortunately his wife won't let him. Undaunted, he decides to make a play for his new young secretary which begins a wild adventure of confusion, lies, misunderstanding, cross-dressing and death-by-the-gas-board.

I read this one only because of a set of pictures I ran across one day featuring an actor I admire, taken when he was very young and performing in this play. And I simply had to know what the hell was happening in this play for those pictures to be taken. The production was done in the days before YouTube; and anyway YouTube recordings of plays--especially whole plays-- are relatively rare. So the only choice I had was to read the thing, and miraculously I could do that through our library. The Good and Faithful Servant was a transitional work for Orton. A one-act television play completed by June 1964 but first broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion on 6 April 1967. The Erpingham Camp, Orton's take on The Bacchae, written through mid-1965 and offered to Rediffusion in October of that year, was broadcast on 27 June 1966 as the 'pride' segment in their series Seven Deadly Sins. In 1966, Orton began again to write a diary (something he had started earlier in life). These later chapters, whilst being a frank and open account of his life, are also well-crafted literary works. They record, among other things the difficulties he experienced in his relationship with Halliwell, but give no clue that the nature of his death at the age of 34, could have been foreseen. The facts of the matter are that in August 1967, Halliwell killed him by repeatedly hitting him about the head with a hammer. Halliwell then took his own life with an overdose and 2 lives and a promising career were brought to an untimely end. This year for us, in the Bench, has been an epic journey spanning five decades. The idea to perform a play from each decade of the company's existence as a celebration of our 40th anniversary has allowed us to do what we do best, present exciting and challenging theatre. It has also allowed us the opportunity to present a world premiere of a play written specifically for our 'State of the Nation' theme.

What the Butler Saw | play by Orton | Britannica

After a number of unsuccessful minor works, Entertaining Mr Sloane was Orton's first major script but the play received mixed response when it opened in 1963. In later venues however, it was voted Best New British Play by Variety's London Critics, moved to Broadway and Orton had his first taste of major success. Joe Orton was born John Kingsley Orton on January 1, 1933, into a working class family in Leicester, England. Orton's father earned little as a gardener for the city, and his mother's extravagant taste ensured that the family was almost always in debt. Orton's parents fought continually, and there was little affection within the family; writing in his adolescent journal, Orton always put the word "family " in quotation marks. The play consists of two acts - though the action is continuous - 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 in a job interview, during which he persuades her to undress. The situation becomes more intense when Mrs Prentice enters, causing the doctor to hide Geraldine behind a curtain. Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. Softcovers. A 16pp programme from the Wyndham's Theatre. 1991. WHAT THE BUTLER SAW. BY JOE ORTON. DIRECTED BY JOHN TILLINGER. WITH CLIVE FRANCIS,SHEILA GISH. Cast list and biogs. b/w photos of the cast in performance.Loosely inserted a review and a flyer. A near fine copy.

You may speak freely in front of me - I represent Her Majesty's government, your immediate superiors in madness." In the cinemas the 'Carry On' series was at its peak in the Talbot Rothwell scripted era (also the writer of the classic series 'Up Pompeii') proving that Britain's love of saucy humour and innuendo was strong. (The films were frequently in the top five box office films of the year and for several years were THE number one box office draw which is something often forgotten!) As well as all this we had 'That Was The Week That Was', 'Beyond the Fringe', 'Not Only But Also' and Spike Milligan's 'Q' series. I remember arguing with companion who wanted to walk out on the student performance that we were attending and my resisting vehemently because a friend of mine was in the cast. Indeed if one does not have a close friend or relative associated with the production it would be insane to attend a performance of "What the Butler Saw" never mind sitting through to the end.

Author of What The Butler Saw - crossword puzzle clues

Watch the boundaries of sexology break down when an everyday erotic dalliance gets totally out of hand. See nubile bodies stripped to the bare minimum before your very eyes. And what indeed does the butler see? You must await the very private and personal appearance of the Right Hon. Winston Churchill to find out. "The sane must appear as strange to the mad, as the mad to the sane" says the sinister and questionable Dr Rance. Fortunately, we have a clear-eyed view of the distinction, thanks to lucid performances and good team-work from David Penrose, Jude Salmon, Jane Hart, David Brown, Peter Corrigan and Peter Colley. Pete Holding and the stage crew ensured a smooth run though a mad, mad world with a beautifully clean and clinical set. I thought that I read my least favorite play when I read The Foreigner by Larry Shue. But, BOY was I wrong. This. This play gets it. I have NEVER hated a play as much as I have hated this one. My poor roommates had to be three while I screamed into the distance about how AWFUL this play is. Orton wrote Funeral Games from July to November 1966 for a 1967 Rediffusion series, The Seven Deadly Virtues, It dealt with charity--especially Christian charity—in a confusion of adultery and murder. Rediffusion did not use the play; instead, it was made as one of the first productions of the new ITV company Yorkshire Television, and broadcast on 26 August 1968. A 2017 production directed by Nikolai Foster was a co-production between the Curve Theatre, Leicester and the Theatre Royal, Bath. [11] Cast Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Softcovers. A 40pp programme from the National Theatre. 1995. WHAT THE BUTLER SAW BY JOE ORTON. WITH JOHN ALDERTON AS DR. PRENTICE.DAVID TENNANT AND RICHARD WILSON WERE ALSO IN THE CAST.DIRECTED.There was a further revival in 2012 at the Vaudeville Theatre, directed by Sean Foley, which ran from 16 May to 25 August. [10] Cast

What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton | Goodreads What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton | Goodreads

Thank you for continuing to support local theatre, without you we and groups like us would not be able to continue to bring the best in world theatre to the local stage. So keep on coming... and bring all your friends too!!!! In 1995, a Royal National Theatre production of the play premiered in February at the RNT's Lyttelton Theatre and then went on tour prior to returning to the RNT repertoire. Phyllida Lloyd directed the play. [9] Cast Joe Orton's final play, unrevised at the time of his death in 1967, is a hard one to get right, since it combines manic farce with non-stop social commentary. That doesn't excuse Sean Foley's production. Everyone bellows, barks, screeches and shouts so much that Orton's subversive wit gets buried under an avalanche of coarse acting.Joe Orton, The Complete Plays: The Ruffian on the Stair, Entertaining Mr. Sloan, The Good and Faithful Servant, Loot, The Erpingham Camp, Funeral Games, What the Butler Saw Orton and Halliwell wrote a number of unsuccessful works together but achieved bizarre notoriety in 1962 when they were convicted and imprisoned for the seemingly innocuous crime of defacing library books. The court passed down a harsh, 6-month sentence for what was ostensibly a prank. However, in an age where homosexuality was still illegal, the fact that the prank included pasting semi-erotic pictures on to covers of what they considered to be 'very dull' books probably influenced the judiciary. Orton later commented that they had been persecuted harshly because they had been discovered to be gay men openly living together. All in all an extremely entertaining performance where "the sane appear as strange to the mad as the mad to the sane"! Where Queen Elizabeth Slept & What the Butler Saw: Historical Terms from the Sixteenth Century to the Present