Tag Archives: What the Butler Saw

Drawing: What the Butler Saw, with Omid Djalili, Tim McInnerny, Samantha Bond, Georgina Moffett, Jason Thorpe and Mick Hendry

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What the Butler Saw

Joe Orton’s farce What the Butler Saw premiered at the Queen’s Theatre in London on 5 March 1969 – his last play before he was bludgeoned to death by his partner Kenneth Halliwell in August 1967 at the age of 34. In a short, but prolific, career he became known for scandalous black comedies often referred to as “Ortonesque” characterised by dark yet farcical cynicism.

In 2012 a revival was staged at the Vaudeville Theatre, featuring Omid Djalili, Tim McInnerny, Samantha Bond, Georgina Moffett, Jason Thorpe and Mick Hendry who all signed my sketch in July.

Drawing: Samantha Bond

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Samantha Bond001

Aptly named, Samantha Bond featured in four 007 films as Miss Moneypenny during the Pierce Brosnan era between 1995 and 2002. The popular British actress has been a regular on the West End boards over the past five years. In an interview for WhatsOnStage, Samantha said, “I try and do a play a year. It’s my favourite place, nothing compares to live theatre… where I feel most at home, but it does scare the shit out of me.”

Following the revival of Tom Stoppard’s classic comedy of ideas Arcadia at the Duke of York’s in 2009, she did two shifts at the Vaudeville Theatre, with Oscar Wilde’s The Ideal Husband (with her husband Alexander Hanson) and What the Butler Saw before returning to the Duke of York’s for Passion Play in May 2013.

Her next appearance will be the comedy musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy next month. So, plenty of opportunities to get Samantha to sign a sketch…. In this case she ‘graphed it at the Vaudeville during What The Butler Saw in July 2012.