Doctor's Notes

I have been a big fan of Joe Orton's ever since my mother made me repeatedly watch the film version of Loot. Either she wanted me to grow up a bank robber, funny, or gay. I am sorry to say I disappointed her on all counts.

What The Butler Saw was the last play that Orton wrote shortly before his violent and untimely death in 1967, and was performed posthumously.

It's a satirical examination of pop psychology, gender bending, mistaken identity and lunatic logic. A breakneck farce, where few manage to keep their heads whilst those around them are losing their clothes. It's full of the most ridiculous plot twists, unlikely liaisons and naiveté ever seen on stage, but it's a work of pure anarchic, anti-establishment genius for all that.

We have updated some of the references (hence vitality pills have become Viagra, and health scheme became NHS) and we didn't exactly follow Orton's stage directions to the letter, we added quite a few visual gags of our own, but over thirty years later, please don't take this the wrong way, we hope we have stayed true to Orton's vision and that this play still manages to shock you. If you go home having been entertainingly outraged, then we have done him proud.

It only remains for me to say this (and let's face it, you're probably only reading this because you got here fifteen minutes early) the cast had six weeks to rehearse this and never in the history of Carlton Dramatic Society has so much been achieved by so few in so little time.

Kristen Bowditch, Summer 2001

p.s. Sorry about the crayon, they don't allow sharp objects in here.