If you haven’t seen Scena Theatre’s well-received production of Jean Genet’s “The Maids” yet, you have just three chances left. Final performances are tonight and Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 3pm at the Warehouse Theater, whose stage is beautifully transformed into a Parisian flat filled with a golden bathtub and opulent flowers. That beauty, however, is masking a rotten core, the truth of which is mesmerizingly revealed over the course of the play.
“The Maids” has always been one of my favorite plays, a tragic drama about two maids and their fascination/repulsion relationship with their mistress as they act out their roles in both fantasy and reality. It mines the meaning of fetish, of possession, of acting itself, and what it means to be an artist both against and beholden to the ruling class. When the hated mistress finally appears, like a keen-eyed bird of prey, she dooms the maids to an inevitable conclusion.
Heady stuff, and the three actors in Scena’s production – Jenifer Deal, Nanna Ingarvasson, and Danielle Davy – are giving top-notch, truthful performances that strongly deserve to be seen.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
As one of the founding editors of We Love DC, Jenn’s passions are theater and cocktails. After two decades in the city, she’s loved every quirky, mundane, elegant, rude minute of her DC life. A proud advocate for DC’s talented drinks scene, she’s judged the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s ARTINI contest, the DC Rickey Month contest, the Jefferson Hotel’s Quill Cocktail competition, and is a founding member of LUPEC DC. A graduate of Catholic University’s drama program, she toured the country as a member of National Players, and has been both an actor and a costume designer before jumping the aisle to theater criticism. Writing for We Love DC restored her happiness after a life-threatening illness, and she’s grateful to you, dear readers. Send your suggestions to jenn (at) welovedc (dot) com and follow her on Twitter.
