Review: THE MAIDS, Jermyn Street Theatre
Photo credit: Steve Gregson
The tension steadily builds in this intimate production of Jean Genet’s The Maids.
The Maids opens with a mistress and her maid, Claire, engaged in a verbal sparring match, but it emerges the mistress is the actual maid Claire, while the ‘Claire’ we have been watching is her sister Solange, a second maid. Confused? Well, that was Genet’s intention. The Maids deliberately blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy, playing with the audience by having the sisters role-play within what we know is already ‘a play’ anyway.
Inspired by the true story of the 1930’s Pepin Sisters, who murdered their mistress and her daughter, in The Maids, Genet, translated here by Martin Crump, explores how those positioned by society as powerlessness might subvert this, either in fantasy or reality. As Solange (Anna Popplewell) and Claire (Charlie Oscar) develop their role-playing so the question arises as to what might happen when fantasy slips over into reality.
The bulk of the 90-minute playing time follows the interactions of the two sisters and Oscar and Popplewell beautifully play off one another. Popplewell’s Solange embodies that character’s self-loathing and brittleness. Solange is the elder sister but in their role-play, she largely plays a submissive role, although in a speech towards the end of the play, Popplewell shows how Solange too might adopt different personas. Will Solange finally follow through on the fantasy, or is she incapable of breaking free of her situation?
Oscar’s Claire provides a strong counterbalance to the tense and angry Solange. Claire more easily slides between domination and submission and while she clearly has the upper hand in knowing how to handle The Mistress, her fate looks set to be tragic. Oscar delivers a nuanced performance in presenting different sides to her character.
As The Mistress, Carla Harrison-Hodge initially seems less oppressed than her maids but as her scenes unfold, it becomes clear that she, in her own way, is just as trapped by external circumstances as her maids. Harrison-Hodge humorously shows the range of personas that a mistress might adopt, sliding seamlessly from solicitous to generous to patronising.
Given that Genet had no intention of The Maids being naturalistic, the technical aspects of this production effectively add to the theatricality of the piece without letting it slide into melodrama.
Cat Fuller’s set and costume design enhances the dreamlike quality of the production: a bedroom lined in deep-buttoned padding provokes a sense of either chic leather upholstered walls or a padded cell. Centre set, a large glass window which, when backlit, reflects the audience onto itself: a central theme of the play is whether or not one is seen. Front lit, it becomes a window on a world outside the claustrophobic space within which the sisters find themselves but from which they cannot escape.
Catja Hamilton‘s subtle lighting design captures the mood of the action taking place over the course of an evening with low lighting casting threatening shadows onto the white padding.
Underscoring sound by Joe Dines builds tension through subtle rhythmic beats and Annie Kershaw’s direction keeps everything briskly moving along.
The Maids explores the plight of the oppressed and is a challenging but engaging evening.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Mike Askew
The Maids is a co-production between Jermyn Street Theatre and Reading Rep Theatre. It is running at Jermyn Street until 22 January before transferring to Reading Rep. For more info on The Maids, please click here.
