Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
When Joe Orton’s sex farce What the Butler Saw was first performed in 1969, it famously scandalised its audience. There were cries from the balcony of "Filth!" and "Shame!" This week at the Drama Barn, however, there was no such uproar.
The audience was transported back to the kitsch feel of the sixties and into a psychiatrist’s consulting room. Here, in order to hide the prospective secretary he has just persuaded to undress, Dr. Prentice enters into a frenetic cover up that releases mayhem, involving shootings, strait-jacketings, and transvestism.
Apart from the expected slip-ups that can be attributed to an opening night performance, the cast managed this chaotic script very well and the fast pace of this play was, on the whole, well choreographed.
Mark Smith gave a brilliant portrayal of Dr. Rance, a man who sees insanity wherever he looks and Sophie Walsh-Harrington did an admirable job as the increasingly hysterical Mrs. Prentice, although unfortunately her performance was at times inconsistent.
The best performance of the night came from James Duckworth as Dr. Prentice, who made his potentially atrocious character vaguely sympathetic, as he was helpless against the madness that unfurled around him.
Performed at a time of gay liberation, the pill and free love, What the Butler Saw is often considered dated. Having lost its satirical impact and its ability to shock, it is seen as more titillating than outrageous. Indeed, comic moments abounded in this production, such as Dr. Prentice’s efforts to hide his secretary‘s clothing in various parts of the room.
For me, however, this production revived the play. It did not lose sight of the darker moments, such as the casual attitude towards rape or the dubiousness of distinctions between abnormal and normal, insanity and sanity. Indeed, as the director (Jonathan Kerridge-Phipps) told me of Orton’s brutal murder by his partner Kenneth Halliwell not long after completing this play, What the Butler Saw is perhaps also unsettling. A must-see.
What the Butler Saw is running until Sunday night at the Drama Barn. Tickets are available on the door.
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