Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Comments (0) By D.L. Groover and Lee Williams Thursday, May 25 2006

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What the Butler SawBritish playwright Joe Orton is perhaps most famous for his grisly demise. He was bludgeoned to death with a hammer by his lover in the '60s. In happier days, the man spent his time shocking the theatrical world with his hilarious sex farces that feature all manner of risqué behavior. What the Butler Sawmight be his most famous script, and the amusing production, now running at Main Street Theater, makes it delightfully clear why. The story features the sex-crazed Dr. Prentice (Rutherford Cravens), a psychiatrist who opens the show by trying to seduce Geraldine Barclay (Lydia Meadows), a pretty young thing looking for a job in his office. In the order of farce, the seduction is, of course, interrupted by Mrs. Prentice (Michelle Britton), who is also quite the naughty one. She has spent the previous night in an unsavory hotel and is being extorted for some nudie photos taken of the evening's events. The rest of the show is spent following the characters through a series of missteps and wacky scenes that involve incest and women undressing. And while none of this is quite so interesting as being hammered to death by one's lover, the show, directed with great glee by Rebecca Greene Udden and featuring hysterical performances by Cravens and Britton, is certainly well worth seeing. Through May 28. 2540 Times Blvd., 713-524-6706.