Butley (Modern Plays) [Paperback]

Simon Gray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 1971 | Series: Modern Plays

One of a series of children's books featuring individual characters from the "Winnie-the-Pooh" story books. This particular boxed set features four stories of Tigger, with the characters of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Christopher Robin, Rabbit and Kanga included.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Methuen young books (November 4, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0416186408
• ISBN-13: 978-0416186406
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,172,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Downer But Still Funny, September 14, 2008

By 

John F. Rooney - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Butley (Modern Plays) (Paperback)

I saw Nathan Lane in Simon Gray's "Butley" on Broadway on January 6, 2007. The Playbill has a caricature of a very somber, ravaged, disconsolate Ben Butley on the cover. Lane, perfectly cast, gave an excellent performance, but I left the theater feeling downhearted after experiencing Ben, a self-loathing, selfish, and nasty university professor who treats everyone to a taste of his vile nature. In the space of a few hours he loses two people close to him, his wife Anne and his academic colleague and lover Joey, both of whom have mistakenly loved him.
The audience sees a man who can be funny, sardonic, wickedly vindictive, and a sorry and miserable excuse for a human being. He loves to deflate people with his devastating insults; he gets his kicks out of being malicious. He's too bright for his own good. The dialogue, often hilarious, is worth the price of admission, but watching the disintegration of a despicable man can be very trying.
Joey says, "You spread futility, Ben. It creeps in like your dirty socks do."
This play had its first performance in 1971. Simon Gray died at 71 in August of 2008.
Well-constructed and clever, the play observes the unities of time and place, has funny lines, but the title character is a nasty piece of work, too much of a bad thing for an afternoon or evening of theatergoing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeper than it looks, February 14, 2010

By 

C. Robinson (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Butley (Modern Plays) (Paperback)

Back in the 70s, I saw the film starring Alan Bates; a few years ago I saw the play starring Nathan Lane. It's hard for me to imagine how I would have reacted to reading this play without Alan Bates in mind. Suffice it to say that "Butley" the film is still my favorite movie and Bates is still my favorite actor (despite his death in 2003); it would be very different if all I had seen was Nathan Lane's version. Much as I like Lane, his Butley was superficial and clownish, while Bates brought out the cleverness, vulnerability, anguish, and frustration of a brilliant literature professor losing control of his life. Read the play, see the movie. (I bought the VCR tape before I had a VCR player; I now have two copies of the DVD. There are new insights every time I watch.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neo-classical tragedy in Academia, September 29, 2005

By 

Stephen Weislogel "SPW" (San Mateo, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Butley (Modern Plays) (Paperback)

Like Prometheus bound to a rock in Aeschylus's tragedy, Ben Butley is bound to his office as a series of messengers from his personal life appear to give him bad news. Butley may be too sloshed, too witty, and too careless about his love life for his own good, but out of all the noisy self destruction you can hear strains of genuine concern, faintly for his child and clearly for literature. Readers of the play will get more out of it if they know something about poetry: a little of Robert Herrick, John Milton, John Suckling, and Richard Lovelace; more of Beatrix Potter (especially "Diggory Diggory Delvet," "Apply Dappley," and "Ninny Nanny Netticoat"), and especially of T.S. Elliot's "Marina." Some familiarity with British class prejudices will also help. But the play is bitingly funny even without all the Anglo-context. It makes an excellent choice for English course syllabi so long as bisexuality and homosexuality won't distract student readers. The brilliant American Film Theater version of the play (available on DVD) features Alan Bates in his finest role.