The Maids by Jean Genet HOME, Review

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Fri 16 Nov 2018 - Sat 01 Dec 2018

In his introduction to The Maids (New York: Grove Press,1954), Jean-Paul Sartre quotes Jean Genet as saying: "If I were to have a play put on in which women had roles, I would demand that these roles be performed by adolescent boys."

HOME'S production, directed by Lily Sykes, honours Genet's wish - in so far as having all three roles played by male actors.

As the play opens Solange (Luke Mullins) and her younger sister, Claire (Jake Fairbrother) are deeply engrossed in well-practised in role-playing. One of them is Mistress and the other the (outwardly) devoted servant.



The sisters flip between contempt for each other's submissiveness and mutual emotional support.

It is like watching children in a remote house dress up in their parent's clothes. Their playfulness though has a deeply sinister undercurrent. They are obsessed with their Mistress and this obsession alternates between sensual rapture and murderous intent. We, the audience, are constantly assessing which impulse will win out.



The Maids - which was premiered in 1947 - is a murder mystery, not in the sense of whodunit (or will do it) but why do Claire and Solange inhabit such an insular, incestuous world.

Have their circumstances made their psychological states inevitable or is this claustrophobic existence the only one that they are able to function in?

Does Mistress genuinely value them or are they just her playthings - at the whim of her moods. "She poisons us with kindness," Claire laments at one point.

The psychological dynamic is heightened by Jake Fairbrother and Luke Mullins' rapid-fire delivery of Jean Genet's dialogue, in a translation by Martin Crimp (first staged at the Young Vic in 1999).



The lighting by Zoe Spurr and music by Jan Schoewer add to the drama's dark spell. The entrance of Mistress (Danny Lee Wynter) is a hauntingly beautiful highlight.

Danny Lee Wynter gives a wonderfully camp performance as Mistress. He pitches it somewhere between Blanche duBois and Maggie Smith, in Downton Abbey.

Arguably, this portrayal robs the Mistress of some of the erotic power, which bewitches Solange and Claire so fatally. But it makes sense in terms of this production. With each condescending, flowery remark, it feels as though she is edging closer to her demise.



This production sees HOME transform its main house theatre into the round for the first time. It is to be hoped that this will not be a one-off when the play demands it - as it does in the case of The Maids



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!date 16/11/2018 -- 01/12/2018
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