Theatre Review: What The Butler Saw

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In 1969, a new comedy called “What the Butler Saw” shocked and delighted London audiences with its insane plot and suggestive content. Three and a half decades later, the B Street Theatre's production is doing much the same thing in Sacramento.


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(Sacramento, CA)
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The British sex farce has an established pattern. This one begins in a doctor’s office.  The man in the white coat is interviewing a prospective secretary.

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This leads to a surprising command.

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...which leads to a request.

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But this isn’t your standard sex farce. Playwright Joe Orton was a brilliant prankster with a flair for living dangerously – and he didn’t live long. You get a sense of that in this play, which sends the story in crazy directions.  There’s also lots of gender inversion -- men who put on dresses, and women passing as men -- with innuendo every which way. Orton also loved to debunk authority… anyone in a position of power turns out to be barely sane, if that. Like that doctor in the first scene, who finally gets his prospective secretary to the sofa.

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So be prepared to giggle at this farce. But you’ll probably wince, too. Orton believed “comedy is a weapon.”

Jeff Hudson, KXJZ News.

"What The Butler Saw" continues at the B Street Theatre through February 25th.