Based on the true story of murderous duo The Papin sisters, Genet’s infamous The Maids is a radical modern classic. Well ahead of its time, it explodes with contemporary ideas about class conflict, sexual identity, and political outcasts.
In the title roles at HOME are Jake Fairbrother as Claire and Luke Mullins as Solange. Danny Lee Wynter completes the cast in the role of Madame.
HOME transforms its main house theatre for The Maids into the round for the first time. Building over the stalls seating area, the stage will be raised up to the height of the circle – and audiences will be able to watch from both on and off the stage in a specially built seating area.
Genet wrote The Maids in 1947 whilst serving a prison sentence, as an imaginative and intellectual escape. Premiering the same year, Genet’s chilling tale follows the story of a pair of maids who create violent, darkly humorous fantasies while dressed in the opulent clothes of their mistress.
Indulging in theatrical re-enactments of the power structures which define their lives, the line between make-believe and reality becomes increasingly distorted, as it becomes clear that the aim of the game is murder…
Lily Sykes is making her HOME directorial debut, having spent most of her professional career in Germany. A graduate from Oxford in German literature and philosophy, Sykes worked from 2009-2012 as a director’s assistant at the Schauspiel Frankfurt, and also regularly supervised her own directing projects in that time.
Since 2012 she has directed for the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Berliner Ensemble, the Schauspiel Frankfurt, the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the Schauspielhaus Graz, the theatres in Oberhausen, Osnabrück, Lübeck and Münster, and the Studiotheater Berlin.
Martin Crimp’s translation of The Maids was first staged at the Young Vic in 1999. His new play, When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other – Twelve Variations on Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, starring Cate Blanchett and Stephen Dillane, opens at the National Theatre in 2019.
Alongside the main house theatre production of The Maids, HOME is delighted to announce its accompanying France Now season in its Theatre 2 space between Tuesday 27 November 2018 – Saturday 1 December 2018.
Following the success of its previous Berlin Now and Cuba Now seasons celebrating thrilling, emerging work from these regions, HOME invites three young companies to take a close-up look at life on the other side of the Channel with three contrasting performances all highlighting the charms and challenges of life in France.
France Now is kindly sponsored by the Institut Français du Royaume Uni as part of the En Scène! Programme – helping to present work across Greater Manchester by some of France’s leading artists covering all spectrums of performing arts.
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The Maids by Jean Genet
@HOME MCR
16th November – 1st December 2018
