Gritty Genet classic

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JEAN Genet’s play, The Maids, is the story of the relationship between two maids and their madam. It is a work which provides a delicious framework to tease out provocative images which resonate in South Africa where the masterservant construct remains part of our landscape.

Theatremakers Philip Rademeyer and Wessel Pretorius who are known for their innovative, offcentre and gritty work are giving the play “an intimate, seductive, contemporary staging” from November 9- 28 at Alexander Upstairs in Strand Street. Rademeyer directs and Pretorius performs with David Viviers and Melissa Haiden.

Pretorius and Viviers play the maids – who are also sisters and outcasts – and Haiden plays their madam. It’s not unusual for men to play the maids, says Rademeyer.

“The play has been done with men before; this isn’t something out of the ordinary. In an essay Genet indicated that the roles should be played by men so that there could be greater distance between the actor and the role, so that the actors could be ‘signs’ rather than ‘characters’.

“For Genet, having men play the roles would also show that gender is performed and performative – that it is not necessarily linked to biological sex (these ideas were theorised in the 80s and 90s by theorists like Judith Butler).

“For Genet, the artifice and theatricality of theatre was important – he never wanted to place real life onstage. Our production is quite stylised and there is no attempt to create any illusion of real life”.

The script hasn’t been localised. “I think the production is quite homoerotic – the text to a large degree deals with desire (and its opposite, repulsion), in moments it looks at the fine line between pleasure and pain; in our version the maids wear very little.

“They sweat a lot and they are in close proximity to the audience because of the small space we are performing in.

“For me the piece is about selfother relations,” said Rademeyer. “When one of the maids looks at her sister, she sees a mirror image of her own s hor t c o mings, her own ‘filth’ as they say in the play. But when one looks into a mirror, one sees not only one’s own self, but you also see that which you are not, that which you can never be, you become aware of an ideal ‘other’.”

The maids have become marginalised. “In the eyes of the world they are the unreal, they are monsters, they live in a liminal space – and they are aware of it”.

As the Alexander Upstairs has only 44 seats, booking is advisable.

● Tickets for The Maids are R80R90. Bookings www.shows.alexan derbar.co.za or on 021 300 1652 or at the venue.

The Maids. SELF-OTHER: David Viviers in