What the Butler Saw
26 February - 11 April
Ticket Prices |
Full Price |
$45.00
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Seniors / Industry |
$37.00 |
Concession |
$30.00 |
Group Bookings |
$37.00 |
Preview Performances |
$29.00 |
Previews
Saturday 21 February at 8pm
Sunday 22 February at 2pm
Performance Times
Tuesday 6.30pm
Wednesday to Friday 8.00pm
Saturday 2.00pm and 8.00pm
Sunday 5.00pm
Backstage Q & A
Wednesday 31 March at 6.00pm
Unwaged Performances
Thursday 8 April at 2.00pm
Schools Performances
Friday 5 March
Thursday 11 March
Friday 19 March
All performances start at 11.30am
Carole's Club
Sunday 29 February from 4.00pm
What the Butler Saw
26 February - 11 April
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Set Design
Brian Thomson
Lighting Design
Nigel Levings
Costume Design
Alice Lau
Composer and Sound Design
Basil Hogios
Assistant Director
Christopher Hurrell
Stage Manager
Juliette Kingcott
Assistant Stage Manager
Minka Stevens
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Isabella Dunwill (Geraldine Barclay)
Nicholas Eadie ( Dr Prentice)
Max Gillies (Dr Rance)
Sam Haft (Nicholas Beckett)
Deborah Kennedy (Mrs Prentice)
Michael McCall (Sergeant Match)
What the Butler Saw
26 February - 11 April
Download Media Release
Reviews
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, FEB 27
Orton's fun machine still hits the satiric spot
"(Orton's) most frequent plays in Sydney at least, have been The Ruffian on the Stair and Loot, both strong and interesting, but not as wickedly clever and astonishing as What the Butler Saw.
Making his directing comeback at Belvoir St, Jim Sharman has created a suitably austere playground and manifested a memorbaly manic, vivid and amusing production...The asthetic recalls aspects of The Rocky Horror Show but here the nutty experiments, wilful distortions, narcissistic and delusional acts are done in the light, not the ambiguous shadows.
It may not pack the punch it once did, but What the Butler Saw still has relevant things to say about conformity,sexuality and quick-to-judge authority. And it's a triumphant return for Sharman."
Full Review
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From the the program....
“In the right hands, verbs and nouns can create panic”
Joe Orton
After the success of Entertaining Mr Sloane (1964) and Loot (1966), two great comedies set in suburban worlds, What the Butler Saw (1967) saw Joe Orton’s comic focus widen to embrace middle-class society. Set in the clinic of a fashionable London society Psychiatrist, the play opens with a classic farce seduction scene. Orton then takes us on a “rake’s progress” that offers us a peephole glimpse into a world of power and appearance, sexuality and identity, sanity and madness.
In What the Butler Saw, Orton combines elements of traditional farce, comedy of manners, revenge drama and Greek tragedy and wraps them up in a fireworks display of language aimed at alternately delighting and surprising his audience. Premiering posthumously in 1969 in a commercial West End production, it has been the subsequent revivals (at the Royal Court Theatre and The National Theatre) that have confirmed its place in the classic repertoire.
“Orton’s terrible obsession with perversion, which is regarded as having brought his life to an end and choked his very high talent, poisons the atmosphere of the play. And what should have been a piece of gaily irresponsible nonsense becomes impregnated with evil.”
Harold Hobson – Christian Science Monitor
“What the Butler Saw will live to be accepted as a comedy classic of English literature.”
Frank Marcus - Sunday Telegraph
For more information on the life and times of Joe Orton and background notes on the production, purchase a production progam available from the theatre, priced $5.
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