Dr Prentice (Kenneth Price) and Geraldine Barclay (Natalie Grady). DB4024P2

WHAT THE BUTLER SAW, SALISBURY PLAYHOUSE

WELCOME to Dr Prentice's private clinic on the main house stage.

You won't meet any patients in Joe Orton's darkly satirical farce, even though one character refers to the clinic as a "mad house". But you will be reminded of the brilliance of the late playwright's wordplay, infused with scything wit as swipes at the hypocrisy of 1960s society are sweepingly made.

What the Butler Saw shocked audiences when the play was first produced in 1969 and, while it has more than a sprinkling of references to such subjects as adultery, incest, rape, transvestism and violence, there is not much to shock 40 years on.

Mayhem takes hold fairly speedily sparked by Dr Prentice's (Kenneth Price) botched seduction attempt of new secretary Geraldine, played with delightfully wide-eyed naive innocence by Natalie Grady.

Interrupted by his wife (Melanie Jessop), a raging nymphomaniac recently returned from her own sexual encounter with a rather dashing toy boy hotel porter (Michael Camp), all the play then needs for the farcical sequence of events to take off is the arrival of someone in authority.

Enter the rather sinister and quite, quite mad Dr Rance (Christopher Good) as the government inspector, and both doctors quickly lose grip on reality.

Before you know it, young Geraldine has been certified, tranquillised, strait-jacketed and had all her hair chopped off.

Her abandoned pleas to "just tell the truth, Dr Prentice" fall on deaf ears, and anything resembling sanity quickly disintegrates in this quite absurd play where it becomes normal for characters to be dressed in nothing but undergarments.

Barry Aird more than makes up for his lack of lines with a wonderful portrayal of physical comedy as the drugged Sergeant Match.

Matthew Wright's archetypal consulting room set is pristine, though expansive.

You almost expect the skeleton in the corner to speak, such is the bizarre nature of the plot.

Timing is crucial in farce, and, although the pace was a little uneven at Friday night's performance, Philip Wilson's entertaining production does achieve manic frenzy by the masterful denouement.

- Anne Morris

10:12am Thursday 8th May 2008

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