What the Butler Saw: reviewed

Joe Orton’s last play

At Soulpepper Theatre: until  September 18

Reviewed by Ron Singer

What the Butler Saw was written in the  1960′s by Joe Orton, one of the brilliant, angry young British playwrights of the time. More specifically, this was Orton’s last play, written in ’67, just prior to him being bludgeoned to death by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell.

Orton clearly lived a controversial life, and he wrote to provoke his audience. And while he dealt with serious topics, such as pomposity and self deception, his work is usually hilariously and outrageously funny.

In this case, we’ve got an action-packed, farce-like script that requires incredible precision. The play is set in an insane asylum and opens with a psychiatrist (the talented Blair Williams) trying to convince a gorgeous young woman applying for a job as his secretary (a delightful Nicole Underhay) that stripping naked is one of the necessary job requirements.

The playwright is asking the question: who is sane and who is insane, and in the process he sends up everything from bourgeois society to the institution of marriage itself. Since this script was written by a gifted and daring individual, and staged by the talented Jim Warren, who has a well-deserved reputation as an excellent director particularly with this type of material, I figured that this would be THE big hit of the Soulpepper season.

Alas and alack. In this case, my expectations for a challenging, incendiary and rabble-rousing evening of theatre were not fulfilled.
How come? Because I realized only by watching, rather than reading the play, that the material is outdated and tired. The particular approach and language  Orton uses to “send up” psychiatry and psychiatrists, was likely funny in the 60′s. But today, too much of this play is simply “old hat”.

We’ve seen and heard this all before. And while the cast are a director’s dream, they simply didn’t gel in this production.

The usually brilliant Oliver Dennis plays a somewhat goofy British Bobby competently, while Graham Harley makes the most of his role as a rather insane  supervising mental health officer. However, director Warren, in an attempt to create a farce-like pace and energy - I assume - actually pushed his actors to an uncomfortable place, where too much of their words and actions felt forced. The humour only worked intermittently and the entire production felt like a work in progress… as though it might work if and when the company settled down and found a more comfortable rhythm. Interesting because it’s a seldom-performed revival of a 60′s classic, but not really successful. 

In looking for what the butler saw, I never  found it.

 About Ron Singer : Artistic Director Emeritusof The Randolph Academy of the Performing Arts, former Chair of the Department of Theatre at York University, former entertainment critic (CFRB Radio and Standard Broadcast News), and former  arts and entertainment reporter (CBC Variety Tonight).

(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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