WHAT THE BUTLER SAW. To 22 October.
London
WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
by Joe Orton
Hampstead Theatre To 20 August 2005
Transferred to
Criterion Theatre To 22 October 2005.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Tue + 28 Sept 3pm & Sat 4pm no performance 27 Sept.
TICKETS: 0870 060 2313 (24hr No booking fee)
www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 July
Hampstead shows Orton's final play is one for these times.
A play about medics covering-up their unprofessionalism and failing to listen to patients might have presented a mad world to master at the time of Butler's 1969 premiere. Nowadays, it falls between commonplace news stories of doctors and hospitals being sued.
Having had fun with a corrupt police officer in Loot, Joe Orton extends the picture to a whole profession and beyond. Medical inspector Rance (dreaming of a fortune out of publishing his memoirs) announces himself as representing Her Majesty's government your immediate superiors in madness. The whole social order, convention and tradition, are insane and Orton throws in for what we are told is very good measure, Sir Winston Churchill, dead only 2 years before Butler was written and still a national icon.
The programme for an early Sheffield production reflected views of the times on madness in asking who was more insane: the man who thinks he's a poached egg, or the well-adjusted' pilot who flies a nuclear bomb for dropping. Today in London, the question's re-angled: how does the rationality of a suicide bomber figure in relation to that of a leader who authorises war on the grounds of none-existent weaponry? How are these to be rated on any scale of the irrational?
More immediately, sex and ambition drive Orton's crazy world. Family values are subverted, in the kind of contrived re-union conclusion common throughout classical comedy. Specifically, the excellent performances in David Grindley's meticulous revival point up the parallel with both the structured dialogue and carefully manufactured conclusion of The Importance of Being Earnest.
Grindley has directed traditionally-crafted plays with huge success Ayckbourn, Knott and, most famously, Journey's End. He brings the same care to Orton, realising every detail must be played serious and logical to bring farcical success when assembled. Jonathan Coy's increasing desperation follows the situation, Belinda Lang is gloriously self-assured as his wife while Malcolm Sinclair's Rance allows precisely enough time to take in what others say before replying with the firm-voiced dryness of authority.
With good work from others, on Jonathan Fensom's rightly realistic set, this is a fine and timely revival.
Nicholas Beckett: Geoff Breton
Dr Prentice: Jonathan Coy
Sergeant Match: Huw Higginson
Mrs Prentice: Belinda Lang
Geraldine Barclay: Joanna Page
Dr Rance: Malcolm Sinclair
Director: David Grindley
Designer: Jonathan Fensom
Lighting: Jason Taylor
Sound: Gregory Clarke
Fight director: Paul Benzing
Assistant director: Kelly Wilkinson
2005-08-01 09:29:11