Butley: A Play

Written for a cast of 4 men and 3 women. One of the most successful plays of recent British stage history, Butley explores the complex relationship between the university lecturer Ben Butley and his former star pupil (now fellow lecturer) Joey. Against a background of petty academic politics, Butley makes some painful discoveries - about himself and those he loves or purports to love - when, in the course of a single day, he is obliged to face the fact that not only his wife left him for another man but so has Joey, the friend with whom he had been sharing both office and apartment. Hardbitten and cynical on the surface, brilliant and devious in his thought and language, Butley emerges as a moving and touching character.