What the Butler Saw Opens May 12th

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by Justin Belleme
on Wednesday, May 12, 2010

North Carolina Stage Company closes its 8th season with the brilliantly subversive 1969 farce What the Butler Saw, running May 12-30 at the theatre's downtown venue. What the Butler Saw was written by Joe Orton, and although it shocked London audiences at its premiere, it's now considered a classic of 20th century comedy.

Dr. Prentice operates a successful psychiatry practice out of his London home, but when he attempts to seduce his attractive new secretary, it sets off a chain of seductions, cover-ups, mistaken identity and double-crosses.

What the Butler Saw has all the hallmarks of a classic farce. What sets Orton's work apart, however, is the biting social commentary underneath the absurdity. Orton's play is full of "sexual and psychological exploitation, gender confusion, lost and mistaken identities, nymphomania, transvestism, incest, blackmail and bribery (JoeOrton.com).

What the Butler Saw is directed by Ron Bashford, co-chair of the Warren Wilson Theatre Department and director of some of NC Stage's most successful productions, including Hamlet, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Moonlight and Magnolias. Most recently he directed Dead Man's Cell Phone at NC Stage, a co-production with Immediate Theatre Project.

The cast of six consists of Asheville-based actors Matt Burke, Charlie Flynn-McIver, Casey Morris, Rebecca Morris, and Vivian Smith, joined by Graham Smith, an acclaimed Charlotte actor who appeared with Charlie Flynn-McIver in 2009's A Number at NC Stage.

Before Orton's untimely death, he shocked, amused, and outraged audiences with his scandalous (and sometimes macabre) comedies. At the premiere of What the Butler Saw in 1969, audience members actually shouted at the actors on stage, and tore their playbills to shreds. The Christian Science Monitor wrote that the play was "impregnated with evil."

It was only years later that the play became considered a classic. Of a 1989 revival of the play, the New York Times wrote "to settle for calling Orton's comedy funny is not to do it justice. In this work, the author of ''Entertaining Mr. Sloane'' and ''Loot'' wrote that rare thing, a truly revolutionary play."

North Carolina Stage Company opens the run of What the Butler Saw with a Pay What You Can Night Wednesday May 12^th sponsored by Minx Boutique. On Pay What You Can Night, tickets are subsidized so that patrons can see the show for as little as $6. Reservations are highly recommended, with payment at the door.

North Carolina Stage Company is Asheville's professional non-profit theatre, presenting a year-round season of classic and contemporary plays, plus community-centered programs like the grassroots Catalyst Series and No Shame Theatre. Founded in 2001, NC Stage focuses on classic plays and the best of contemporary theatre: award-winning plays that are being presented on Broadway, off-Broadway and in regional theatres across the country. NC Stage has been named Best Local Stage Company by readers of the Mountain Xpress for four years in a row (2006 - 2009).

North Carolina Stage Company's 2009-2010 Season is sponsored by Blueprints for Business, The Colorful Palate Catering, Elizabeth Keel, PLLC, Imaging Technologies, the North Carolina Arts Council, Treadshots Photography. Onstage Playbill Sponsors are Charlotte Street Computers and Wick and Greene Jewelers.

Tickets are $16 - $26, varying by day of the week. Student rush tickets are $10, available at 2:00pm the day of the show.

For more information and a full calendar of events, visit www.ncstage.org or call (828) 239-0263.

Content Source: www.ncstage.org/pages/productions/mainstage-season/what-the-butler-saw.php