The Maids – Sydney Theatre Company

Overview

The Sydney Theatre Company has done a cool thing with The Maids, which is to cast its biggest celebrity actors in its least accessible show for the year. Every night, there'll be people who came to see beloved Cate Blanchett, internationally respected Isabelle Huppert or perhaps breakthrough Great Gatsby star Elizabeth Debicki — and they'll be leaving feeling puzzled, challenged, perhaps bewildered and perhaps exhilarated. It's fabulous, and helps build a strong theatre culture.

French maids are famous these days for their black-and-white uniforms (skimpier in the public mind than in the 19th-century reality in which they were common). Frenchman Jean Genet's The Maids is also famous, although in this case, the maids are the ones having the fantasies. While the mistress of the household is away, the two sisters take turns dressing in her clothes, dusting themselves in her powders and hurling entitled abuse at the other. At the height of their routine, repeated to the point of ritual, the mistress character is violently murdered.

The Maids was, like so many Law and Orders, inspired by (but not technically based on) factual events. The 1933 murder by two maids of their wealthy employer stoked the imagination of a man fascinated with subversion of power, class and gender norms — themes that he powerfully brought into the theatre. French maids are the subject of sexual fantasy because they submit to dominance. What does it mean for one maid to exercise mastery over another? What happens when they assert it over their superior? This Sydney Theatre Company production is directed with thought and grandeur by Benedict Andrews.

Interestingly, although the maids, Claire (Blanchett) and Solange (Huppert), are engaged in a performance, so too is their mistress (Debicki), a self-enabling parody of wealth. Debicki owns the role, and seeing the 6'2" actor tower over Huppert (5'2") is a hugely effective visual. Debicki's scenes are when the play is at its most thrilling, because, unlike the controlled moments shared between the maids, there's a sense that anything could happen.

Huppert's performance, meanwhile, is enigmatic and disconnected, quite unlike the other actors on stage (on any stage, almost). It's hard to understand, until you read this, from Genet's lengthy notes on 'how to play The Maids': "The actresses will restrain their movements, each one of which will seem interrupted, or broken off .... sometimes their voice, too." Check. "The performance will be furtive so that the heavily overblown language feels lighter." It's Huppert to a T. However, a bit more consistency across performance styles could have been a benefit, as well as some delineation between the modes of performance of the ritual and the real.

The Maids takes place on a flashy, luxurious set (by designer Alice Babidge) that's sure to alight any aspirational tendencies in the beholder (wall-to-wall colour-arranged wardrobe, omg). It's also equipped with a giant screen that shows vision from camera-people who prowl in the wings. They're there to capture the revealing little gestures and moments that would otherwise go unnoticed, and it's fun when they do.

The best angle, however, is from the camera on the dressing table, which captures the women as they pout and preen at the mirror, each engaged in their private show. It's a familiar sight that cuts through to a contemporary audience, and touches like this make the play accessible and engaging. For a contemporary audience low on firsthand experience of the master-servant dynamic, it's a cheeky reminder of the trappings that endure.

A limited number of Suncorp Twenties tickets are available for $20 each.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0-IGU_LQdU8