The Maids

[edjames]

Part of the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, this Australian Sydney Theater Company presentation is now running at City Center starring Cate Blanchett.

 

 

 

 

 

SPOILER ALERT>>>> DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU BOUGHT A TICKET!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A less than satisfying 90 minutes of theater! No intermission.

 

Genet was filled with angst and horror. His plays often go a little too erotic and sadomasochistic for me. This one is no exception. He was one wacko kind of a guy.

 

Loosely based on the true story of two maids who murder their mistress and her daughter in 1933, Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert play, unbelievably, the French sisters.

How one can explain this bit of terrible casting is beyond me. Is the audience expected to believe that Blanchett with her Aussie accent and Huppert, with her atrocious French accent sounding like a mouth full of marbles are supposed to be sisters? One tall and blonde, the other short and brunette. No way.

 

The set, a palatial modern bedroom, fills the stage at City Center. Surprisingly for such a palatial room, the bed is a double! The back of the stage is an open closet of magnificent gowns, furs and other expensive wardrobe pieces.

 

In a slapstick way, the ladies run, jump and punch on each other while role-playing their fantasy dream of killing their mistress. There's lots of spit (salvia) and other rude and crude gestures going on. There isn't a shred of doubt that these two are obsessed and mentally unstable. Eventually they demolish almost everything in the room.

 

Young Australian actress, Elizabeth Debicki plays the Mistress and she too adds to the dementia of the chaos.

 

In the end, it's all about Blanchett who shines above everyone else. Huppert is wasted because you simply cannot understand anything she says.

 

Oh, and then there's that huge screen over the set on which is simulcast live close ups of Blanchett and Huppert. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Half the time you're looking at their feet or flowers strewn over the set.

 

This review from the NY Daily News gets it about right:

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/showandtell/cate-blanchett-sweeps-spell-jean-genet-maids-blog-entry-1.1898097

 

After the show I really needed a drink and went out only to find the guy at the bar next to me also had the Playbill from the show We chatted and both agreed it was not a show you'd recommend nor go to again, unless you are a Blanchett fan.

 

ED

[Frankly Rich]

Ben Brantley liked it better, but comments on some of the same issues that Ed notes: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/theater/cate-blanchett-and-isabelle-huppert-in-the-maids.html?hpw&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

[+ WilliamM]

I am seeing "The Maids" on Saturday. I have liked Blanchett in "Streetcar Named Desire" and "Uncle Vanya." Thanks, Ed. Now I am prepared for this play to be far less satisfying. I do have the 1974 film version of "The Maids" with Glenda Jackson and Susannah York. I will certainly watch it before next weekend.

 

Tickets to "The Maids" was supremely expensive -- could have seen two other shows on Saturday for about the same price.

[Lewis H]

I thought it was beautifully done, and the camera work and screen projection evoked the kinds of closeups and imagery that one would see in, say, a music video. A slick deconstruction, if you will. I thought that was a particularly engaging idea.

 

But I do agree that Isabelle Huppert's accent and the particular traits she imbued her character with were distracting. But overall, I thought it was a fantastic play.

[Frankly Rich]

I am seeing "The Maids" on Saturday.

 

Tickets to "The Maids" was supremely expensive -- could have seen two other shows on Saturday for about the same price.

 

WilliamM, any other shows on your plans this weekend? Or did The maids eat up your budget?

[+ WilliamM]

The Guuggenheim is open that night, and I have wanted to see the exhibit on Italian Futurism. I would only see another show if I really loved "The Maids."