Late at night, in a darkened cinema in York, two men take on the guise of two servant women and attempt to plot the murder of their beautiful mistress. Jean Genet’s play, ‘The Maids’ is an exploration of female jealousy, of oppression within the class system, of beauty and of survival. The Bruise Theatre Company, making good use of the small stage space available at City Screen, return with another late night ‘mixed media’ theatre piece. Bruise Theatre’s ‘The Maids’ is directed by Alison Goldsmith, with Howard Spencer-Mosley and Danny Brierley taking on the roles of servant girls, Claire and Solange, and with Kate Hildred playing Madame. But the question is, can all of these complex themes be satisfactorily pondered in a one act, 65 minute long play? And is the success of this tale, told through the eyes of women, not hindered by the presence of far-from-feminine male actors playing these roles? | "What were meant to be angry words between females simply came across as slightly frightening alpha male aggression" | |
Although Genet himself stipulated that the servants in ‘The Maids’ should be played by men, due to his belief in the total unreality of theatre as a medium, it does appear that in so doing, he is cutting off his nose to spite his face. The script is at times poetic, veering from baseness and anger to beautiful nostalgia, yet what it is essentially about, is the complexities of the relationship between women. Thus, despite steady performances from Spencer-Mosley and Brierley, dressed in various female get-ups, obtaining occasionally profound moments, the muscular physicality of these males did detract from the believability of this play. Rather than being fully allowed to engross myself in what I was watching, I had to continually reinterpret how this inherent male gesturing would appear if performed by women. Only then could I believe, by which point the depth of the issues raised had passed me by. What were meant to be angry words between females simply came across as slightly frightening alpha male aggression, as did acts of physical tenderness appear instead as quasi-sexual groping. Nevertheless, an impressive and ambitious effort from Bruise Theatre is definitely worth seeing for the visual aspect and the slickness of the performance. As a whole, however, ‘The Maids’ is an ultimately frustrating viewing because of the suspension of belief that in this performance gender-bending sadly holds. Naomi Glass |
