To serve is not exactly to protect, as the two housemaids who work for their Madame in the 1946 play The Maids attest.
The latest production to be staged by Armstrong’s Asparagus Community Theatre, The Maids was written by French playwright Jean Genet and speaks to the underdogs of society who fight the powers that be, said Joanne Feenstra, who is directing the production, which will be ACT’s entry at this year’s Okanagan Zone (O-Zone) Drama Festival.
Let’s just say the housemaids in this production make the servants on Downton Abbey seem angelic in comparison.
“To me, the play is about being stuck. You think that if they are not happy, why not just leave your job, but if you look at it from the inside, we are all stuck. It could be in a job we don’t like or a relationship. (The maids) haven’t had the opportunity to leave,” said Feenstra.
The play opens as maids, who happen to be sisters, Solange and Claire (played here by Asparagus newcomer Felisha Anderson and veteran Mandy Penner), are trapped in a room and begin to plot, in devious ways, to kill their Madame.
“They emulate their Madame and play roles to a point where you are not sure who is who as they are plotting her demise. Then the Madame shows up and things become more clear,” said Feenstra.
The Madame, in this case, is played by Feenstra’s daughter in-law Jodi Bremner.
“The Madame is also stuck. She is in this mono-dimensional world. She lives for the Monsieur. Most of her thoughts are in her relationship with the maids,” said Feenstra.
“As one of the maids says, ‘Madame loves us as much as she loves her bidet.’ The same goes with her husband… They are necessary for her survival.”
One of the godfathers of the French theatre of the absurd movement, Genet, like other writers in that genre during the post-Second World War era, focused largely on the idea of existentialism, expressing what happens when human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down.
His upbringing may have something to do with why he latched on to these principles, said Feenstra.
“He was the son of a prostitute, who ended up in foster care. He would become a male prostitute and was jailed more than 10 times,” she said. “He hung out with the Black Panthers in the 1960s. He felt for the under-class society. As a homosexual in those days he was not part of the general society.”
First performed at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris April 17, 1947, The Maids contains many absurd theatre tropes.
“The characters are caught in hopeless situations and are forced to do repetitive and meaningless actions, speak in a dialogue full of clichés and nonsense, while the cyclical plot continues to unravel,” said Feenstra, adding the crew have also kept those principles in mind in setting the stage.
“Our set designer Bruce (Turnbull) has a master’s in art and has created a white set that looks removed from reality.”
Feenstra adds that audiences should keep an open mind as they watch The Maids unfold on stage.
“I think about the bears in the Stanley Park Zoo who walk the same route over and over again because they are stuck. People in the play do the same thing. There are repeated patterns on display.”
The Maids stages at Centennial Theatre in Armstrong, April 28 to 30 and May 5 to 7 at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at The Guy Next Door, 3450 Okanagan St., Armstrong, (250)-546-0950.
