The Maids

Not only have I never seen this play before, but I had also never heard of it, however, I am so pleased to have been invited to see it this evening.

Written by Jean Genet, it is loosely based on his play on the infamous Papin sisters, who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in Le Mans in France in 1933.

This is a three-hander with each of the actors having extremely long passages of dialogue, especially the two sisters Claire and Solange, played by Lucia Boulenz and Becca Millard respectively.

Claire and Solange, as well as being sisters are also housemaids, who, when their mistress, Madame, played by Nicole Smith is out, take turns in role playing. One of the sisters will play Madame whilst the other takes on the role of the maid, by doing this they show how they both divide the power, the one playing Madame will demean and belittle the other.

The ultimate goal of their role playing, however is the murder of Madame as, by doing this they think they will be free of her dominance and control.

At the start of the play, it appeared that Claire was the Madame and Solange was the housemaid, they both portrayed their characters in the role play to the full, so much so that we, the audience, were all convinced they were their respective roles, at least I was.

As the play moved on, the two housemaids changed as they swapped roles, and it became evident they were getting high on their role playing.

The role playing of the sisters came to an abrupt halt as Madame returned and took charge of the situation, it would appear Madame’s lover had been arrested, however Claire had taken a phone call to say he had been released and was waiting to meet her, Claire, however failed to pass this message on to Madame which made her become quite hysterical. Claire made her a cup of tea which she tried and failed to get her to drink, however was the tea all what it should be?

Madame left and Claire took on her role once again, demanding that Solange gives her the tea to drink, both of them knowing it was not quite right.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a three-hander with lots of dialogue, however, not once did the action drop or the lines and all three must be congratulated on their performances which were outstanding.

The demeaner, attitude, behaviour and speech of all three actors would change several times during the play, and at times this would happen during one speech, however nothing was lost and every single word spoken could be heard perfectly, all of which added to the enjoyment of their performances.

Congratulations to all three actors of their superb performances and also to the production team of Francesca Butler and Maria Kwater. Mention must be made to stage manager Barry Blatt and set designer Ben Hopwood.

 

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