Butley

Almost 40 years after it was first premiered. Simon Gray’s 1971 play was revived by director Lindsay Posner for a new London audience. The title role Ben Butley is a middle-aged English lecturer bent on self-destruction. Once an expert on T S Eliot, Butley is now more interested in nursery rhymes; yet his real expertise lies in the dark art of abuse. As his marriage, career and social life collapse a once brilliant man becomes wounded and wounding, driving away his family, students and the young protege who lives with him.