Fuel Festival 2010: The Butler

Performed by the Loons Circus Theatre Company
Written by Joe Bennett
Directed by Mike Friend

It’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s visually stunning and fiercely satirical. Inspired by Peter Greenaway’s film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, critics have called it Cirque du Soleil for grown-ups and Pinter on stilts.

The central character of the butler presides over a bizarre dinner party. He stands apart from the action having seen and heard it all before.

In counterpoint to the butler’s gloom, the dinner party guests are all exuberance. Brittle as biscuits, they wind every social convention up to the pitch of parody and beyond. Their dialogue consists of snippets, expressive of the shallowness of behaviour, of the skull beneath the flesh. Every trivial event - the taking of hats and coats, the saying of grace, the polite chit-chat, the serving of hors-d’oeuvres, expands by natural progression into grotesque and outrageous circus antics.

The resulting action is chaotic and delightful, but underlaid with an emptiness that the characters must defy. Here is the froth and bubble above the dark and the stark. It’s like nothing seen before but it is instantly recognisable.

The must-see show of 2010 - last chance to see it before its debut London season

“A raunchy and raucous show where circus and comedy collide…for once a standing ovation was not just appropriate it was necessary” Nelson Evening Mail

Contains nudity and explicit language, some content may offend.

Presented as a part of the Fuel Festival 2010.

The premier showcase of New Zealand Theatre, The Fuel Festival celebrates our stories, and brings to Hamilton a diverse range of performances, workshops and seminars across 11 days.

24 June - 4 July 2010.

Event listed by SWPR Ltd

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