What the Butler Saw

Fearless Satire

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. 

British Terms Glossary

Golliwog: A blackface doll that was very popular in the early 20th century. The doll is based on a minstrel character from a nineteenth century children’s book.  

Homonculus: A small human being.  

Cuttings Album: An album of newspaper clippings.  

One Two Three Club: A strip club. W.H.  

Smith & Sons: A very large British publishing company and bookstore.  

Being put in the club: To get pregnant.  

Hat trick: Three of the same achievements, such as three consecutive goals scored by one player in a game of hockey.  

Howdah: An ornate seat on the back of an elephant or camel.  

Peccadilloes: Small indiscretions or sins

OFF SALE

November 12 – December 21, 2014  

Mark Taper Forum 

The play is set during the 1960s in a room in a private clinic.

There will be one 15-minute intermission.