The Maids

Drinkers of chamomile tea, be warned. Jean Genet's The Maids is being staged in Malta for the first time in an all-male production directed by British theatre-maker Scott Le Crass. It is an intense, pressure cooker of a piece. This is intelligent theatre and, if you are brave enough, you should go.

The decision to use three male actors is not some hideous example of woke cross dressing on stage. Genet originally instructed that the female roles should be played by men. The casting is therefore not merely a modern experiment; it follows an important part of the playwright's original theatrical vision. Genet wanted exaggerated gestures, voices and appearances so that the actors would not pretend to be realistic women. Instead, the audience would constantly be aware of theatre, disguise and transformation. This is not pantomime. It is thought experiment.

A couple of things make this particularly heightened. The fact that two of the cast wear beards (a decision made post the poster thank God). And in this production, Galea's portrayal can make 'Madame's' femininity appear deliberately theatrical, reminding the audience that every character is performing a role. This is emphasized by a bizarre costume that makes Madame appear like a seven foot high Drag Queen. This caused confusion for some. Part of the audience had come expecting a comedy – an early Pantomime perhaps. But this costume choice is all part of emphasizing the writer's original intention.

The Maids was first produced in Paris in 1947. It is a shocking piece. Genet based it partly on the notorious 1933 case of Christine and Léa Papin, two sisters who worked as maids and murdered their employer and her daughter. The real crime shocked France because of its extreme violence and because it exposed the resentment produced by domestic service and class inequality. Genet transformed the event into a poetic and highly theatrical study of fantasy, humiliation and revolt.

The play concerns two sisters, Claire and Solange, who work as servants in the home of a wealthy woman known simply as 'Madame'. While Madame is away, the sisters perform an elaborate ritual in which they exchange identities. One becomes Madame and the other becomes the servant, allowing them to act out their feelings of hatred, envy, dependence and desire. Their fantasy repeatedly moves towards the murder of Madame, but the boundary between theatrical role-play and genuine violence gradually becomes uncertain.

The play means more than simply a story about two servants plotting murder. It asks what happens when people are denied dignity and treated as possessions. Claire and Solange hate 'Madame,' but they also desire the world she represents. Their rebellion is therefore trapped inside the system they oppose. Through role-play, they briefly imagine freedom, yet their identities remain shaped by servitude.

A very French concept. Post the Revolution, everyone is a 'citoyen' with rights and must be treated as such. Workmen must be addressed as Monsieur or Madame, while they may use your Christian name if they chose.

This is all a demanding piece and bravo to this production for tackling it. The cast consists of Victor De Bono, Malcolm Galea and Anton Saliba, with movement direction by Chakib Zidi. Malcolm Galea plays Madame, while Anton Saliba plays Claire; the excellent Victor De Bono completes the central trio, playing Solange.

The production places Genet's themes of identity, power, sexuality and social inequality at the centre of the performance. Anton Saliba's Claire and Victor De Bono's Solange are not simply conventional domestic servants. They are women performing versions of femininity, obedience and rebellion. Their relationship is intensely emotional: they are sisters, collaborators and rivals. Each both needs and resents the other. Malcolm Galea's Madame represents the social world that gives the sisters employment and status but also reduces them to objects. She is admired for her clothes, beauty and wealth, yet she is also the focus of the maids' anger.

The use of male actors also exposes gender as something constructed through clothing, movement, voice and social behaviour. Le Crass has explained that the all-male casting offers a fresh perspective on the play's sexual dynamics and its queer undertones. With only three performers on stage, the production becomes an intense "pressure cooker" in which there is nowhere for the characters—or the audience—to hide. The physical language created by Chakib Zidi is therefore important: movement can show the shifting power between the sisters and the ways they imitate, attack and depend on one another.

The Maltese production makes this meaning especially visible. By having men perform all three roles, it refuses a realistic interpretation and highlights the artificial nature of gender, class and power. The characters are not only pretending to be other people; they are showing how society forces individuals to perform identities every day. In Genet's dark theatrical world, liberation is imagined through disguise—but the disguise may also reveal the truth.

This is cutting edge for us here in Malta. Challenge yourself and go.