What the Butler Saw

Categories: Rediscoveries , Staff Picks

There is no butler character in this hilarious play by Joe Orton.  What the Butler Saw begins with a psychiatrist's interview with a candidate for a secretarial position.  When the candidate admits she cannot type, the lecherous psychiatrist asks her to remove her clothes so he can conduct a psychological evaluation.  When the psychiatrist's wife arrives suddenly, the secretary must hide behind a screen.  An inspector of psychiatrists threatens to commit the secretary to a mental institution because of her inappropriate nudity.  A missing body part of a statue of Winston Churchill is key to the plot.

If you liked The Importance of Being Earnest, you'll like What the Butler Saw.  The play's opening is certainly reminiscent of Wilde's work.  (I've omitted the stage directions to save space.)

Prentice:  I'm going to ask you a few questions. Write them down.  In English, please.  What was your father?  Put that at the head of the page.  And now the reply immediately underneath for quick reference.

Geraldine: I've no idea who my father was.

Prentice: I'd better be frank, Miss Barclay.  I can't employ you if you're in any way miraculous.  It would be contrary to established practice.

Interestingly, Joe Orton was imprisoned for six months for stealing and mutilating library books.  Now, of course, the mutilated books are the most valuable books in the Islington Library. (Scroll down the "Islington Library" link for an example.) Orton was bludgeoned to death by a lover in 1967.