'The Maids' explores chance to kill from every angle
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Grade: A
What: Rogue Theatre presents "The Maids" by Jean Genet
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Jan. 28 (No performance Jan. 19)
Where: Cabaret Theatre at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.
Price: $17 general admission. Pay what you will, Jan. 18.
Info: 326-7354, www.theroguetheatre.org
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Thanks to the narrow formulas of today's movie and TV programming, sex and violence have become flip sides of the same coin. But that wasn't always the case.
Perhaps it is the nature of democracy, with its perceived concepts of personal freedom, to be more violent than those traditional societies that have an established social order.
Kris Kristofferson said "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." But complete freedom could be just another word for anarchy - only one step away from chaos.
If such philosophical musings interest you, plan on seeing "The Maids" by French playwright and convict Jean Genet. Just like those modern prisoners on death row who write best-selling novels, Genet was a literary guy who had some serious run-ins with the law. He did time for being a thief and survived on occasion as a male prostitute.
Now our city's own Rogue Theatre has opened a production of "The Maids" based on a translation by Bernard Frechtman. Working in the upstairs Cabaret Theatre at the downtown Temple of Music and Art, director Joseph McGrath has created a shaded interpretation of personal power.
A part of that shading is the way McGrath has arranged audience seating on steep banks of risers around three sides of a simple stage set dominated by a double bed. Like medical students in an anatomy lab, we look down on the actors dissecting one another's feelings. Genet's elevated language adds to this sense of intellectual detachment.
We become like Greek gods - maybe not on Olympus but a hill nearby - watching a couple of humans thrash about trying to understand their own deadly frustration.
"The Maids" is based on the sensational crime in 1933 of two French maids who murdered and mutilated their mistress and her daughter. In a search for motive, Genet considers issues of social class and education, gender and responsibility, tossed into a noisy swirl like eager children in a classroom, each one shouting "Choose me! Choose me!"
But Genet the ruminating playwright refuses to choose. He finds many possible motives for this murder, and eschews such easy picks as jealousy or greed. As we observe, we realize how utterly simplistic today's pop culture crime dramas have become with their primitive cause-and-effect routines.
The lives of Claire (Susan Arnold) and Solange (Cynthia Meier) have become a frayed fabric of unsettled conflict. The two can live fairly comfortably, as long as they do what they are told. But Claire and Solange hate doing what they are told.
Their mistress, known only as Madame (Arlene Naughton), treats them well enough, but also has a patronizing streak they find maddening.
As performers, the three actors have a convincing grip on their roles, never seeming intimidated by the intellectual range of Genet's writing.
In the play's first half, Claire and Solange engage in a game of pretending to murder Madame with a cup of poisoned tea. In this game, they are supposedly working out the details of who will do what, but we understand what they are really doing is working up the courage.
When Madame finally appears onstage, it is a surprise to discover she is so lovely and graceful. When a few unexpected events bring these murdering maids a chance to actually go through with their poisoned-tea plan, Madame decides she doesn't care for any tea. Instead, she goes into the city.
Now the maids are stuck. After coming so close, they can't go back to being just maids. Their appetites are whetted for freedom. Solange feels compelled to finish the job.
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