|
|
|
|
What's Pass the Butler About?
“Inspector, you are right off the track. Sir Robert could never have been Nigel's mother. How could he? In 1956 his political career was in full bud. He could never have become pregnant. It would have looked ridiculous for a male junior minister. Even in the Liberal party.” Eric Idle's first stage play, Pass the Butler, is a triumph of outrageous logic and death-defying ingenuity, as might be expected from the author of Hello Sailor and The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book. As the action of the play moves forward inexorably from breakfast to sherry and what follows, it becomes rapidly clear that all within the country home of Sir Robert Charles, Minister of Defence, is not as it seems. And not only is Sir Robert no longer an active force in politics, his inactivity has become a well-nigh insoluble problem. Furthermore, the relationship between his daughter Annabelle and the butler, Butler, is mysterious to say the least. And after what follows sherry it seems that life in the Charles household will never be the same again. By the time the denouement is reached hardly any of our worst suspicions have been left unconfirmed. Pass the Butler is a very funny, savagely elegant play, which opened in London in January 1982. It was first presented by the Cambridge Theatre Company Ltd (by arrangement with Michael White) at the Arts Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry, on 3 November 1981 and in London by Michael White (by arrangement with the Cambridge Theatre Company Ltd) at the Globe Theatre on 26 January 1982 with the following cast:
Hit No
|
Send email to
wdg@wyongdramagroup.com.au with
comments or questions about this site
|
