What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton 1969 English Subversive Comedy Classic Play.  Condemned when it opened in 1969 as “vulgar”, “sordid” and “sick” for its provocative blend of the comic and the macabre, Joe Orton’s irreverent black comedy What the Butler Saw now seems less controversial in all ways except one: its humorous treatment of rape and sexual assault. Following feminist analyses of sexual violence since the 1970s, Orton’s final play has been increasingly condemned as outdated and offensive, even misogynistic.

But despite the apparently glib references to rape that run through the play, Orton thoughtfully uses this theme to amplify his central concerns: hypocrisy, corruption and the limits of the sexual revolution.

Now, 50 years after its premiere, What the Butler Saw deserves to be recognised as a play in tune with today’s #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in its excoriating satire on a society that elides, minimises, normalises and even romanticises rape. That people fail to see this indicates the persistence of attitudes lampooned in the play.