What The Butler Saw is a now an infamous farce written by Joe Orton (born here in the great East Midlands don’t you know) shortly before he was viciously beaten to death by his lover in 1967. Orton was, you might say, a bon viveur and renowned bohemian who wrote many a deliciously dark satire about the social mores and peculiar peccadilloes of his times. This piece was first performed after his death in London at the Queens Theatre (now the Sondheim) in 1969. It is said that there were cries of ‘Filth!’ from the balcony on opening night and that some tried to have the piece censored for nudity. How times change!

The plot centres around a psychiatrist by the name of Dr Prentice who is attempting to seduce his secretary. Almost caught in the act, he makes up excuses which lead to further manic complications. To add another layer of complexity, Dr Prentice’s wife is also being ‘seduced’ by a younger man and the clinical practice at which they work is undergoing government inspection. Oh, and the statue of Winston Churchill in the local town square has lost a rather important ‘member’. The perfect recipe for farcical shenanigans to occur.

In this London Classic Theatre production, Dr Prentice is played by John Dorney who delivers comedy lines with verve and carries the momentum in Act One. Dorney’s facial expressions as the evening’s madness escalates really are something to behold, not to mention some gloriously delivered acerbic notes to the audience.

Prentice’s bored wife (Holly Smith) is served up to us as an arch drunk, a nymphomaniac, and her scenes shared with Dorney are some of the best of the evening. Her pronunciation of the words ‘secretary’ and ‘hotel’ are beautifully affected and executed to great comic effect. I might start using them myself!

The young page boy (Alex Cardall) and naïve aspiring secretary (Alana Jackson) spend quite a large amount of the evening in various states of undress, hiding in different parts of the set and making unfortunately timed entrances and exits. They are both good farceurs although I struggle to hear Jackson on occasion and am still to work out what has caused Cardall to quite spectacularly corpse at the start of Act Two.  

Rival Psychiatrist and inspector Dr Rance (Jack Lord) gets most of the best lines as he descends ever deeper into a mania of his own. Lord straddles the line between authority figure and deviant perfectly.  

The beautiful set is designed by Bek Palmer and is simple but effective, with many a door leading to many a hiding place. I love the surrealist art that adorns the clinic walls and which very much indicates the territory that we have stepped into. I’m less enamoured by the direction (Michael Cabot), feeling that the action and dialogue is in parts sluggish and lacking the required farcical high energy. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of chuckles of course.

Given that the play was written in the 1960’s, you might expect that some of the language and themes have dated badly. It is true to say that the play is shocking in many regards – there are glib attitudes towards sexual harassment not to mention gender and sexual politics. Some of it is not for the faint hearted. However, I think, if you’ll permit me to be overly analytical for a moment, that this is most likely what Orton intended us to feel. He has created a piece that speaks to us of the absurdity of the abuse of power and hypocrisy by those in positions of authority. This is something Orton famously felt he had experienced in his own life. No institution is safe – the church, the police and the government all come in for some deliciously libellous lampooning. As I leave the theatre, I wonder what Orton himself would have made of the piece, had he lived long enough to see it take to the stage. What might he have adapted or changed in response to performance? Sadly, we will never know.

What The Butler Saw by Joe Orton is at Derby Theatre until Saturday 15^th June 2024.