2010-2011 Season

What are People Saying About it?

Key Quotes from Reviews of the CATCO Production:

"'What the Butler Saw' builds to a hilarious climax"

"enough lustful, devious or oblivious characters and gender-reversed, identity-switched contrivances to lay a solid first-act foundation for the mad shenanigans that make the second act so much fun"

"Under the measured direction of Geoffrey Nelson, six actors knit together into a seamless ensemble"

--Michael Grossberg, The Columbus Dispatch (click here to read the entire review)

Key Quotes from Reviews of Other Productions of this Play:

"What the Butler Saw'' is simply too dizzy and high-spirited to quarrel with...Here at last are the two hours of nonstop laughter that theatergoers have been pursuing all season.
--The New York Times

Who’s the Playwright?

Joe Orton (January 1, 1933 - August 9, 1967) was born in Leicester, England to a working class family. He won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he reportedly did not do particularly well. In 1963 the BBC broadcast his play The Ruffian on the Stair and in the two years following he had two of his three major full-length plays staged, Entertaining Mr. Sloane and Loot. Entertaining Mr. Sloane transferred to London's West End and was soon being produced in New York, Spain, and Australia and was made into a film and television play. He was approached by the Beatles and wrote a screenplay for them, called Up Against It, but the project was never realized. His three full length plays, the third being the posthumously produced What the Butler Saw, were black comedies that scandalized audiences with their examination of moral corruption, violence, and sexual rapacity. Orton's career was cut short in 1967 when he was killed by his long-time companion, K.L. Halliwell.