Curve has announced an all new production of Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw, which will be staged during the commemorations to mark 50 years since the iconic Leicester playwright’s death.
Directed by Curve Artistic Director Nikolai Foster, the production will star comedian and actor Rufus Hound as the sex-obsessed psychiatrist Dr Prentice, who attempts to seduce his prospective secretary in a hilarious, innuendo-fuelled interview. Dakota Blue Richards, last seen at Curve as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire returns to play Geraldine, the naïve target of his advances. But when Dr Prentice’s carnally-crazed wife calls in unexpectedly, his clinic becomes a hotbed of heightened sexual tension, mistaken identity and exquisite bad taste.
Orton’s last play, completed just a month before his untimely death and never seen by Orton himself, is a comic masterpiece reminiscent of Oscar Wilde’s witticisms, with the craftsmanship of a French farce and spiked with Orton’s trademark dark humour and unmistakable subversive glee.
What The Butler Saw runs at Curve from 3rd – 18th March. Tickets can be booked online via curveonline.co.uk or by calling the box office on 0116 242 3595.
