THE MAIDS by Jean Genet : Play Review

Review of play THE MAIDS by Jean Genet, directed by Micheal Conroy

Artistic Home Theater, Chicago, IL, July 7, 2018

Maja Rios

“The Maids” by Jean Genet, a French gay, , ex-con, poet, playwright, political activist, and Sartre compadre, just about sums up the theme of the play, “The Maids”.

The play was everything Genet was and more. The lead characters of the maids, Claire and Solange, were played by real-life drag queens, Patience Darling and Hinkypunk. The third character of the Madame, was played by straight actress, Brookelyn Hebert (an actress, known for Dead Serious, Anthropology Anthology 3: Mandala and Lemonade ). The Maids portrays human behavior as shallow, menacing and evil. Two maids degrade each other and their rich employer, Madame throughout the entire play They complain to each other of their poor status, demeaning job, and are envious of their employer, in a play that examines class struggle, and human jealousy, much like Shakespeare, except that play, was written in the late 1940’s. This play deals with “role-playing’ in society and the plight of the “outsider’, which Genet knew well. The addition of making the maids, drag queens, added to the roles of outsiders in this production. The maid, Claire, appears as a woman in a tight black dress, pumps, blond wig, huge eye and lip make-up, and Solange wears a maid uniform with plastic accessories, wig, and huge make-up. Great costumes and makeup and acting help remedy the bit redundant script of Genet, as the characters repeat actions, words, and insults for the entire play. Claire becomes Solange’s “boss and orders her to dress her like Madame, with gowns and jewels. Meanwhile, when Madame appears, in a tight dress, she pretends to like the maids, but it is all surface.

The theater of Artistic home adds to the play, as it is a tiny, intimate theater, where the actors are right next to the audience, so one cannot escape the characters and must partake in the claustrophobic relationship of the characters, as well. Perhaps this is what Genet intended. All relations in the play are superficial, as characters are defined only by dress, make-up, and stuck in their respective roles. Solange appears at the end to try and break out of the submissive maid role but, not many changes. Some parallels could be drawn to society today with our, “roles,’ online of who we want to be, versus who we really are. All human relations in the Maids are seen as false, lacking love or devotion and this I feel was Genet’s message. A quote by a British writer, D. H Lawrence, comes to mind, “There is no love in a Bourgeois society”… Go see this play but be prepared to feel somewhat uncomfortable, for one and a half hours, and suffer from “the Maids” verbal assaults!