Kip Williams' adaptation of Genet's The Maids is extraordinary for both good and not so good reasons. What's not so good is its dazzling display of pyro-techniques. It a dog and pony show with flashing lights on a big screen in which Madam(Yerin Ha) is an influencer with millions of followers. You might criticize the production for being one big selfie, using an iPhone. The other side of the equation is that Genet's work is fundamentally a selfie, waiting to happen, as its primary stock is about identity and domination. The faces of the two maids Claire (Lydia Wilson) and Solange (Phia Saban) are explosive and the technology only amplifies the extraordinary feats of acting, in particular, the massive outcry of words, tumbling out of, at times, garishly painted mouths. One is reminded of Billie Whitelaw's famous mouth in Beckett's Not I. The ending is also a question mark. Genet is a so-called absurdist playwright and the director pays homage to that by reinterpreting the finale as the end of the world. It's one of those Mad Max movies in which the characters negotiate a desecrated landscape, leaving all their frenetic attempts to be on top, as empty, hopeless attempts to fill the void.
