DIARY OF EVENTS
Victorian London; in a gloomy, gas-lit house a woman is slowly going insane.
The house is full of strange noises and her husband's inexplicable behaviour terrifies her. Help arrives from an unexpected source but can the mystery be unravelled before her spirit is entirely devoured?
Curtain up 7.45 p.m.
Tickets £6 from David’s Bookshop (01462 475900) or on the door.
By Joe Orton
READING
Wednesday 24th February
To be directed by Ivan Phillips. If you’re interested, contact Ivan on 01462 421612 or email him on ivan.phillips@settlement-players.org.uk
Joe Orton, What the Butler Saw
Back in 1987, when I was a student in Manchester, I saw a production of Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw. I don’t remember much about the performance, except that it included my first sight of live naked actors and that it made me laugh. A lot. I decided there and then that one day, somehow, somewhere, with some bodies, I’d like to either direct the play or be in it. Well, here we are, in 2010, and the moment has arrived…
According to the records, the Settlement Players have never staged a full-length Orton play. Nor, as far as I know, have they presented nudity to the good folk of Letchworth and the surrounding area. My aim, for June, is to rectify at least one of these situations (the former).
Combining bawdy farce and dark edgy humour, What the Butler Saw was Orton’s final play, completed only a month before his tragic death in August 1967. First performed two years later, with a cast including Stanley Baxter and Ralph Richardson, it is set in the private psychiatric clinic of Dr Prentice and seems (to me) to occupy a territory somewhere between a Carry on Film, a Harold Pinter play, and an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Kate Dorney has described the play as
- the pinnacle of Orton’s crusade against society’s pretensions, and represents the perfect fusion of genres. Set in a mental hospital on a set designed for farce (French windows, multiple doors, windows and cupboards), the play deals with lunacy, incest, adultery, malpractice and homosexuality. Inverting the idea that the “lunatics are taking over the asylum”, Orton posits the much simpler, “the lunatics already run the asylum” to allow us to question notions of madness and sanity.
- Source: Dorney, Kate. "Joe Orton". The Literary Encyclopedia. 21 October 2005, http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3432
- Sounds like fun, eh?
- Dr Prentice – a sexually repressed psychiatrist who runs his own clinic, hates his wife, and has lost his grip on whatever moral compass he might once have possessed…
- Geraldine Barclay – an innocent young woman who attends an interview to become Dr Prentice’s secretary. Little does she know, poor child…
There are six characters in the play (4 M, 2 F):
Mrs Prentice – the sexually voracious wife of a repressed psychiatrist, who hates her husband, and has lost her grip on whatever moral compass she might once have possessed…
Nicholas Beckett – a young man who works as a hotel page and, as the play begins, is engaged in blackmailing Mrs Prentice (whom he ‘seduced’ the night before)…
Dr Rance – a psychiatrist sent by the government to inspect Prentice’s establishment who promptly proceeds to psychoanalyse anyone and anything that moves…
Sergeant Match – a policeman who arrives at the clinic looking for Geraldine, believing her to be in possession of a particular fragment of a statue of Winston Churchill. Needless to say, he gets more than he bargained for…
Featuring ferociously sharp dialogue, a lot of complex farcical business, and some genuinely uneasy themes and scenes, this very funny play retains the potential to shock and entertain – and still, I think, has something to say to Britain in the 21st century. It will present a real challenge for the Players (and lines will need to be learned in super-quick time!), but one that should prove to be extremely enjoyable, rewarding and successful.
It would be wonderful if as many people as possible could come along to the reading on Wednesday 24 February. Even if you don’t want to try for a part, it would be interesting to get ideas, opinions and feedback.
What the Butler Saw: a play of cross words, cross-dressing, undressing, and bad medicine.
20/03/10 Quiz Night 7.30pm
25/03/10 Sawston Drama Festival 7.30pm
20/04/10 Cambridge Drama Festival
10/06/10 - 12/06/10
What the Butler Saw By Joe Orton
09/07/10 Variety Show at The Letchworth Arts Centre
10/07/10 Variety Show at The Settlement
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Settlement Players
Letchworth Settlement
Nevells Road
Letchworth Garden City
Herts.
SG6 4UB
