The Maids
by Jean Genet
in a new translation by Martin Crimp
directed by Adriana Baer
January 20 – February 25, 2006
at the EXIT Stage Left

Based on a famous double-murder case, Jean Genet’s 1947 play explores the dark and romantic side of master/servant relationships. When their mistress is away, sisters and maids Solange and Claire perform a violent and expressive ritual. The game, deadly and captivating, allows the girls to act out their desire to murder both their employer and themselves. Genet, always challenging his society, dares his audience not to blink as an impossible idea suddenly becomes tangible reality.

Martin Crimp’s translation uses the revised ending Genet wrote for the play’s first production, and is the only English translation that uses this ending. In this sleek, intense, and forceful new translation, West Coast audiences will finally see Genet’s play as he originally intended.