by Anita Pati

Only two people walked out – a little noisily perhaps – from Phizzical Theatre’s enactment of Jean Genet’s The Maids – written originally in 1947 and transposed to ancient India.

And at first, it did seem hard to follow the vision of director and designer Sâmir Bhamra whose attempt at catapulting the staid language of 1930s French parlour talk to an Indian boudoir forced mental long jumps.

The Maids – two maids of one imperious mistress – is based on the real life scandal of the Papin sisters, Lea and Christine, who butchered their Madame and her daughter in 1933 France.

In Bhamra’s The Maids, taken from an adaptation by Neil Bartlett, we have the diminutive painted little Claire and her ‘sister’ Solange roleplaying. Power struggles, lust, disgust and hatred are all explored within a sumptuous set of mirrors, ostrich feathers and blood red organza.

The play opens with Claire preening at a dressing table surrounded by gladioli and mimosa. She’s breathy and affected – affecting the behaviour of their breathy and affected Madame. Then the sadomasochism kicks in and Solange takes it, arching her desire for Claire’s insults like a tickly cat purring across the bed.

Both women love and hate the hand that feeds them, each sister wrapped in savage fantasy. But where does the acting start and end? The play blurs definitions between acting and reality, smudging the characters’ outlines.

At some points, the lesbian and incestuous undertones had some of the Asian crowd squirming in their seats. And there were sniggers into shirt sleeves. But after a while, the wisdom of transplanting a 1930s entrenched class system to India’s caste hierarchy started making sense.

The play certainly took on Indian glamour – from the scarlet mosquito net to the brocade ribbon as a weapon. But despite the twist at the end, a performance needs more than costumes to add to the original.

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Performance:
Saturday 9 May 7.30 pm
Canolfan Ucheldre Centre
Millbank, Holyhead
www.ucheldre.org