What the Butler Saw

I was persuaded to make my way down to Mandurah this past weekend to see a performance of "What The Butler Swa' written by Joe Orton and performing at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre presented by London Theatre and directed by Brad Tudor. I confess to not being a fan of farces, but this is Joe Orton and this play is now the exception to my rule. The Director and Designer Brad Tudor, is to be congratulated presenting a quality production. His set design in colours of red, black and grey, is not what one would expect for a Psychiatrist's consulting room. despite initial thoughts of "what the" the colour combinations were workig for me. His use of incidental music during the play was not intrustive and assisted the mood. Well done. Mr Tudor has found six actors worthy of the task set the. geoffrey Leeder as Dr Prentice, looking piss elegant in his ocstume (I want those shoes) seems to have channeled a combination of Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese and with a touch of Kenneth Willuams to effect a performance of high standard. His facial expressions are hilarious, clearly Mr Leeder is a graduate of Farce 101. As Dr Prentice's long suffering and sexually rustrated wife Carole Due takes pn her role with gusto. Peter Shaw as Dr Rance comes to inspect the clinic and it quickly becomes obvious he should be one of the patients! Mr Shaw's work load is diffilcult with monologues which are pretty much blah blah blah. A difficult role well played. Natalie Burbage as the light headed secretary gives an engageing performance and bravely spends so much of her time in bra and knickers. Paul Adams as the bumbling Sergeant Match makes most of his moments on stage and his attraction to the page boy in female clothing is very funny. Benn Rayner is postitvely delighful in his role, looking splendant in his page boy costume, gorgeous in a leopeard print dress and delicious wearing just a police helmet. How we wanted it to slip jsut a bit! Dr Prentice has the pleasure of slapping the boy on his butt, lucky man. This play evidently broke barriers when it was first staged with its views on sexual behaviour and morality. I am not surprised. I think Joe would approve of this production