[The] Orton faithful claim that no play has been more viciously underrated than [What the Butler Saw]…. And yet, after seeing the piece twice fail to generate its quota of laughter, I have to ask if there isn't something intrinsically unfunny about it…. We can't easily laugh at someone's flouting of convention, or his furtive attempts to regain respectability, when no one onstage is remotely conventional, respectable or shockable. Farce simply won't breathe in an atmosphere of amorality and permissiveness. That's one trouble with the play: another is its peculiar blend of frenetic action with rotund aphorism….

The problem is more acute in The Butler than in the earlier plays, because Orton's style grew progressively more mannered and farcical. In Entertaining Mr Sloane, the brother and sister have sensual designs on their psychopathic young lodger, but they tend to express themselves cautiously, obliquely, through euphemism, as one might...