What the Butler Saw

Current & Upcoming productions

Perth Theatre at Horsecross Arts and Perth Theatre Company, Perth Theatre 30^th April – 4^th May 2024.

Past productions

Vaudeville Theatre, (Strand) London 16^th May – 28^th July 2012.
BoxOffice for Headgate Theatre Productions, Headgate Theatre, Colchester 7^th – 10^th December 2011.
The Blue Orange Theatre, Birmingham 13^th – 16^th April 2011.
The Custard Factory, Birmingham 2^nd – 3^rd December 2008.
Hampstead Theatre and PW Productions, Criterion Theatre, London 24^th August – 22^nd October 2005.
Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company, Theatre Royal, Bath 23^rd – 28^th July 2001.
Perth Theatre Company, Perth Theatre 20^th March – 4^th April 1998.
National Theatre, Theatre Royal, Bath, National Theatre – Lyttelton, National Theatre, and other locations 24^th February – September 1995.
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester 7^th April – 7^th May 1994.
Eye Theatre Company, Eye Theatre, Suffolk ended 26^th March 1994.
Hampstead Theatre Company and Michael Codron Ltd, Wyndham’s Theatre, London and Hampstead Theatre, London 29^th November 1990 – 27^th April 1991.
RADA, London 1986 – 1987.
Garrick House Ltd, Lyceum Theatre, Crewe 17^th – 22^nd September 1984.
Bristol Old Vic – Theatre Royal 1983 – 1984.
Cambridge Theatre Company, Harlow Playhouse 14^th – 19^th November 1983.
Churchill Theatre Company, Churchill Theatre, Bromley started November 1982.
The Old Vic, London 1979 – 1980.
Young Vic, London May – June 1979.
Anvil Productions and Oxford Playhouse Company, Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon, Theatre Royal, Bath, and other locations 18^th January – 8^th April 1978.
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester 23^rd December 1976 – 29^th January 1977.
English Stage Company, Royal Court Theatre, London and Whitehall Theatre, London (now Trafalgar Theatre, London) 16^th July 1975 – January 1976.
Tyneside Theatre Company, University Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne started 5^th April 1973.
Bristol Old Vic – Little Theatre 18^th November – 19^th December 1970.
Hornchurch Repertory Company, Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch 28^th April – 16^th May 1970.
H M Tennent Ltd and Lewenstein-Delfont Productions Ltd, Queen’s Theatre, (Shaftesbury Ave) London (now Sondheim Theatre, London), Cambridge Arts Theatre, and other locations 27^th January – May 1969.

What the Butler Saw is a two-act farce written by the English playwright Joe Orton. He began work on the play in 1966 and completed it in July 1967, one month before his death. It opened at the Queen’s Theatre in London on 5 March 1969. Orton’s final play, it was the second to be performed after his death, following Funeral Games in 1968.

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.

His wife, however, is also being seduced and blackmailed, by Nicholas Beckett. She therefore promises Nicholas the post as secretary, which adds further confusion, including Nicholas, Geraldine and a police officer dressing as members of the opposite sex.

Dr Prentice’s clinic is also faced with a government inspection, led by Dr Rance, which 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.” A penis (“the missing parts of Sir Winston Churchill”) is held aloft in the climactic scene.

Edit →

Same name

What the Butler Saw, by Frederick Mouillot and Edward A Parry
What the Butler Saw, by Joe Orton