The Maids - Naach Theatre - 2005
Credit: Marilyn Kingwill / ArenaPAL
THE MAIDS Jean Genet “...speak of Madame’s kindness. Her Kindness is it? It’s easy to be kind, and smiling, and sweet-ah! that sweetness of hers- when you’re beautiful and rich. But what if you are only a maid...”
Two sisters, maids, hold secret nightly rituals, in which they play at murdering their beloved/hated mistress. The Maids (Les Bonnes)- Jean Genet’s deliciously absurdist world, was taken to India 1961. Whilst remaining faithful to the poetical original text, here the two larger than life maids were Hijras; hermaphrodite servants to their allusive madam.
It is the golden age of Indian cinema, and Technicolour has just exploded on the cinema screens. Like all good movie stars Madam keeps us waiting...the sisters go to the cinema and read all the latest novels, through their eyes their mistress is more than a woman she is akin to a screen Diva.
http://www.naachtheatre.com/themaids.html