Sex, madness and authority run amok in Orton's 'What the Butler Saw'

As the curtain closed on "What the Butler Saw" at its premier in London's West End in 1969, conservative society matrons ripped their programs to shreds, tossed them on stage and left in disgust. Their genteel husbands and escorts did the same, bellowing, "Rubbish," "Filth" and "Take it off" as they left. First reviews condemned the production as a "terrible obsession with perversion" and a play that was "impregnated with evil."

More than 30 years later, "What the Butler Saw" gets another chance to shock, disturb and yet perversely entertain audiences here on campus as the Program in Theater and Dance brings Joe Orton's now classic tale of sex, madness and authority run amok to the Matthews Acting Studio. Under the direction of Tomoko Minami '01, "What the Butler Saw" continues the program's series of student thesis productions, showcasing the collaboration of student and professional talent both onstage and behind the scenes, representing all spectrums of the Princeton community.

Set in swinging 1960s London, "What the Butler Saw" takes on traditional British morality, government hypocrisy and above all, sexual identity in this rollicking, fast-paced ride through the world of human insanity. The action takes place mostly during the state inspection of an upscale psychiatric clinic — an institution where clothing is often optional and lost souls are often found to be sane. It is a house where belief in what is normal is abnormal, or as one character mutters to another, "You are in a madhouse in which unusual behavior is the order of the day."

When an interview between the lecherous Dr. Prentice (Charlie Hewson '04) and the naïve Geraldine (Kathleen Amshoff) turns into a full-on seduction, a bizarre turn of events ensues, from the unexpected entrance of an overzealous state inspector (Nick Ordway '02), to a sexual escapade between Prentice's nymphomaniac wife (Susan Schaefer '01) and a hotel bellboy (Lee Spangler '01), and even the emergence of a dimwitted constable (Jesse Liebman '03), who is investigating "a matter of great national importance" — namely, the loss of Winston Churchill's penis. With an impeccable mixture of sex, mod fashion, lewd humor, swinging doors (and sexualities), "What the Butler Saw" will leave you wondering if anyone, including you yourself, can truly call themselves sane.

But the play's true genius emerges in its sharp, quick-witted use of language. This is not your everyday night at the theater passively absorbing the action. Indeed, you must keep on your toes and "prick up your ears," as the ironic title of playwright Joe Orton's biography suggests, to catch all the plays subtle jabs at social mores. Perhaps the play's best feature is its willingness to break down all the compartments into which society attempts to pigeonhole its citizens, and this could only spring from the mind of Britain's most notorious outsider of the 1960s, Joe Orton.

His entire life, Orton was unabashed about his sexuality. Indeed, director Minami remarks that "his diaries read like a porn novel." Orton recorded lavish accounts of his anonymous sexual escapades in parks and lavatories that he would often leave lying around his flat shared with lover Kenneth Halliwell, whose growing jealous insanity was perhaps the single greatest driving force behind the genesis of "What the Butler Saw."

In August of 1967, Halliwell brutally bludgeoned Orton to death before committing suicide himself in a highly publicized and notoriously macabre event. Orton had achieved a phenomenal amount of popularity in Britain, having written several award-winning plays and even was working with the Beatles on a screenplay for a new movie that never was finished. Orton's death may indeed be vividly remembered today, but no one will ever forget the aphorisms he left behind as a product of his colorful life.

"Reject all values of society. And enjoy sex. When you're dead you'll regret not having fun with your genital organs," Orton once wrote — and no one could ever say that Orton did not follow his own advice.

Growing up in a working class Leicester neighborhood, Orton was from the start, destined to somehow break free and make his mark on the upper echelons of British society. Indeed, his mother even pawned her wedding ring to pay for Joe's secondary education and it was only a short time before the young Orton was escaping into the world of theatrics in order to hide from the harsh realities of his underprivileged background. But as a 1998 interview with his sister affirms, it was only when Orton met his lifelong lover, Halliwell, that "this inarticulate young man became articulate." The two began reading classic works of literature together and even collaborated on several writing projects that never seemed to get off the ground. But the two did have their share of fun. Orton was jailed for defacing library books, often by collaging lewd images onto the covers and then hiding in the stacks with Halliwell to watch the reactions of shocked patrons.

It was this act of collaging that first sparked Minami's interest in directing the play more than a year ago. Interested in the art of collage herself, Minami was instantly taken with Orton's technique of layering imagery in his plays and then standing back to watch how the audience and other characters "misread" one another.

" 'What the Butler Saw' is all about alternative representation and comprehension," she explained. "Orton presents us with scenarios, in which what you wear, how you talk or how you construct your gender or sexuality can define you and then shows how this is misleading and instantly reductive. As a homosexual working-class writer, Orton was highly interested in how these labels and signifiers were a way of societal oppression, and the play is his way of commenting."

According to Minami, it was Orton's way of showing how labels and preassigned roles can be misleading that led her to want to produce this play at Princeton.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"I think here at Princeton, people are especially aware of labels and how everyone has a particular role in campus society and how these can often conflict," she said. "People here always look for signifiers to identify people, like 'Who is he?' 'What club is he in?' 'What sport does he play?' This becomes reductive and there is a danger of depersonalizing."

But above all, as Minami adds, Orton is interesting simply because he had nothing whatsoever to lose. His life may have been brief, but Orton was no flash in the pan and will be remembered on both sides of the Atlantic for many years to come, as evidenced by the recent New York revival of "What the Butler Saw" starring Chloe Sevigny. Here on campus, Orton's colorful character should appeal to all Princetonians who want to break free from their molds as well.

"Orton applauded no one and skewered those in authority," Minami added. "He really just wanted to shock."

And who wouldn't love to do just that?