‘Butler’ is a real farce

Marilyn LaRocque

Monday, Jan. 19, 2004 | 8:14 a.m.

The two-act comedy was written in 1967 by British playwright Joe Orton (1933-1967). That year he was hammered to death by his longtime lover, Kenneth Halliwell, who was jealous of his partner's literary success.

First produced in 1969, the play won the 1969-1970 Obie Award for Best Foreign Play.

In an interview in 1967 for programs notes for two of his other plays, Orton revealed perspectives exaggerated in "What the Butler Saw."

Having spent six months in prison for stealing and defacing library books, Orton commented, "I didn't trust the (prison) psychiatrist because I knew anything I told him would eventually be reported to the authorities."

Orton also disliked policemen and said, "Police (are) a necessary evil ... (but) I believe they interfere far too much with private morals ... you never tell them the truth ... you tell the most convenient lie, but one which they'll believe."

Psychiatrists, authority figures and police populate "What the Butler Saw."

All the trappings of comedy run amok abound: actors in underwear, dashing in and out of doors, trading identities and clothes; double entendres, sexual situations, homosexual innuendos, insanity, misinterpretations and a convoluted plot (such as it is).

This is low-brow, ribald humor, not sophisticated British drawing-room wit.

Las Vegas Little Theatre is a volunteer, amateur troupe that has entertained local audiences for more than 25 years. The atmosphere in the theater resembles a family gathering or a performance of the high school band attended by doting family, friends and neighbors.

Jay Somers portrays oversexed psychiatrist Dr. Prentice, who owns a private clinic. Tall and affable, he helped keep the level of misadventure at its peak.

Nancy Denton is his wife, a nymphomaniac, who looks great in a black satin mini-slip and excels at double takes. Katrina Larsen is a bouncy, entertaining Geraldine Barclay, an applicant for a secretarial job with Dr. Prentice. As part of his interview with her, he asks her to remove her stockings "to see what effect (her) mother's recent death has had on (her) legs."

Next he asks her to strip for similarly ludicrous reasons. She gets down to sexy 1960s black bra and panties before retreating behind a curtain. Mrs. Prentice arrives home unexpectedly, and the tall tales and sight gags are on a roll.

Mrs. Prentice has had an encounter the previous night with a bellboy at the sleazy Station Hotel, following a lesbian conference she attended as an observer. Her dress was misplaced, so she's wearing only her coat and slip.

She picks up Barclay's dress and puts it on. The bellboy, Nicholas Beckett (played by JT Mollner), follows Mrs. Prentice to her home to demand blackmail money for pornographic pictures he took of her.

Beckett is being pursued by bulgy, bumbling, easily bamboozled Police Sgt. Match, played adeptly by Robb Penton. Match is after Beckett -- not for his liaison with Mrs. Prentice but because he seduced a group of schoolgirls.

Beckett's behavior is explained away with, "He was unsuccessful in business so he turned to rape."

The script liberally scatters one-liners among the cast.

Dr. Prentice says of his wife, "She's harder to get into than the library of the British Museum." Another laugh- getter was, "The gentleman's lavatory is the last bastion of male authority."

Director of the production is JayC Stoddard. In his effort to replicate British comedy, he has his actors speak at a breakneck pace. which, combined with the faux British accent, frequently obscures the dialogue.

Audibility also suffers because the actors talk to each other, or toward the back of the stage, instead of angling themselves to project into the audience. The two women also tend to shriek their lines too much.

Opening-night jitters, or need for more rehearsals, affected timing and interaction, and some actors forgot their lines. However, the cast was enthusiastic and kept the opening-night audience laughing. Everybody got together for cake and champagne in the lobby afterwards.

It was that kind of evening.