What The Butler
Saw
by Gary Wien
SHARE BUTTON
The name Joe Orton may not
be familiar to many American
theatre fans, but in the mid
1960s he was a rising star in
England. Orton was an openly
gay man during a time in which
homosexuality was actively
persecuted by the police. His
career was tragically cut short
when his partner (Kenneth Hal-
liwell who suffered from severe
NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 8
depression) brutally murdered
Orton and then killed himself in
1967. This occurred roughly one
month after Orton finished the
satirical comedy What the But-
ler Saw, which would be his final
play. It made its debut in Lon-
don in 1969 and will have a rare
performance in America at The
Shakespeare Theatre of New
Jersey in Madison.
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