THEATER REVIEW : ‘Butler’ Serves Satire a la Orton

Joe Orton was a playwright in the right place at the right time. If ever there was a modern society that needed skewering, it had to be London during the ‘60s. All that upper-crust pretension just beginning to clash with Carnaby Street pop was a fertile arena for a guy like Joe.

In a brief but ballistic career, he dug in and took bites out of what he saw around him. The results were farcical, often absurdly comic and usually lowbrow. But his whoopee-cushion wit could be liberating--English audiences sighed with smug satisfaction as often as they wheezed in horror.

Orange County has recently been Ortonized, with South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa staging “Loot” and the Laguna Playhouse taking on “What the Butler Saw.” Laguna picked the better play, but both fit here well enough. This region may not have British accents, but Orton’s goose-jobs can seem primed for this conservative, ultra-moneyed enclave.

On opening night Thursday, director Andrew Barnicle and his cast enjoyed Orton’s subversively playful streak, letting his cockney randiness jolt about the stage. This production may not leave you agreeing with some critics who believe Orton was the Oscar Wilde of his day (Orton is, I think, an overrated, much too romanticized literary figure), but it does show that he could be a kick in the pants, especially the part that covers the groin.

Of course, that was much of the thrill in 1967, when “What the Butler Saw” was written and first produced. All that lascivious talk, all that unleashed hooting over sex and seduction was enough to get everybody tittering.

But Orton was also zapping the Establishment, especially foundations such as marriage and the medical profession, and that imparted a revolutionary’s effervescence to his followers.

That’s muted now. You can get much the same innuendo and outlandishness on TV these days, albeit not quite as well done. At Laguna Playhouse, those involved manage to tap into something of the vitality that must have stunned and thrilled Ortonites back then.

The production was iffy at the start. The first act didn’t take hold, even as the half-baked (but always hot-blooded) psychiatrist Dr. Prentice began his determined bedding of his new secretary. Ho-hum, so he wants to get her in the sack, what now?

Everything moved quickly enough through his manipulations and interruptions by a suspicious wife and the untimely appearance of a government inspector. But you also need to be swayed by Orton’s outrageousness, and that didn’t happen.

The second act gelled, however. We begin to connect with the satiric rambunctiousness of Orton’s characters, and that leads to an acceptance of the completely improbable and tangled plot.

You have to let yourself go when it comes to Orton--in “What the Butler Saw,” men dress up as women, women slip into male clothes, all amid a patter of juicy talk and slippery cover-ups--and Barnicle encourages us to go with the flow.

He realizes that this is unadulterated farce, and his actors don’t need subtlety to sell it. Barnicle takes the standard route with Orton--he asks for the big motion over the small gesture--but it’s hard to imagine performing Orton any other way. Not going way too far is the challenge, and some in the cast meet it more skillfully than others.

Tom Shelton would benefit from less face-making as Dr. Prentice, but when he shouts lines such as “You can’t be a rationalist in an irrational world. It isn’t rational,” we’re clued in to the fact that he may be the most mad of all the psychos romping through his hospital.

Debbie Grattan is sufficiently indignant and amusingly desperate as his wife, who just the night before was caught in a compromising position with a bellhop, played with a hormonal overdose by Keith Hukin.

As Geraldine, the object of Dr. Prentice’s lust, Jennifer Seifert whines an awful lot but is perfectly adept at cavorting about in her underwear.

Then there’s Gary Bell as the steamrollering Dr. Rance. Bell is probably best remembered locally for all the sweetness and light he’s brought to GroveShakespeare’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” over the years. We’ll have none of that in Laguna, mind you--his Dr. Rance is a blowhard with a fine spray of bile.

* “What the Butler Saw,” Moulton Theatre, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Tuesday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Ends Oct. 24. $13-$20. (714) 494-8021 and (714) 497-9244. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes. Tom Shelton: Dr. Prentice

Gary Bell: Dr. Rance

Debbie Grattan: Mrs. Prentice

Jennifer Seifert: Geraldine

Keith Hukin: Nicholas

Robert M. Costello: Sgt. Match

A Laguna Playhouse production of Joe Orton’s comedy. Directed by Andrew Barnicle. Set: Andrew Barnicle. Lighting: Charles P. Davis. Costumes: Lori Martin. Sound: David Edwards. Stage manager: Linda Lederer.