‘The Maids’ – Sydney Theatre Company

THE MAIDS – BY JEAN GENET
DIRECTED BY BENEDICT ANDREWS
SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY – SYDNEY THEATRE
4 JUNE – 20 JULY 2013

Sybil: Post show here after The Maids, STC, at The Bar at the End of the Wharf. What’s your overall impression of the show?
Lea: Fabulously indulgent and also slightly over indulgent
Sybil: Ok, yep.
Lea: Powerful… performances that gave over and above 100%… I thought, in at least their commitment.
Sybil: Yes.
Lea: I quite liked the style of the show yet at times I also felt a bit repulsed by it. But maybe that’s part of the aim.
Sybil: Do you know what my biggest issue was – and I really enjoyed it, I thought that Cate (Blanchett – playing Claire) was incandescent, I thought that she was pitch perfect for the whole thing, I thought that she didn’t put a foot wrong, I thought she was absolutely wonderful – my biggest problem with the whole thing was the other maid.
Lea: Isabelle (Huppert – playing Solange)?
Sybil: Yes, Isabelle. Her accent. I actually struggled to understand her. She talked so fast. I have no idea what she just said and I think I actually missed a lot… especially in that incredible monologue…
Lea: Ah! I think I had got used to her accent by then. I think I struggled more at the beginning. And I also struggled with me struggling with it? Like, I was chiding myself thinking – “Look, you can get into an accent, you just have to let go…”
Sybil: I just kept going – why? Why do we have one French sister? Why is only one French. Why isn’t the mistress French?
Lea: Because I assume STC wanted to work with Isabelle somehow and this was the best vehicle and maybe the only way they could get her over to Australia.
Sybil: Oh is she actually French? (says Sybil in the biggest illustration of the fact she’s not a professional reviewer and doesn’t do any research prior to arriving)
Lea: Yeah…
Sybil: Oh. I did not know this.
Lea: *giggles at Sybil*
Sybil: But I still did struggle. Most of the time she’d get to the end of the sentence and I’d be mentally catching up… I was thinking to myself “What was that? Oh, that’s what she said”. But there were some sentences where I thought – “Nah. Lost it. I’ve just got to listen to the next one now.”
Lea: And just trust the fact that you would ride the wave of what’s going on and anything that was really crucial, you’d work out as you went.
Sybil: It shouldn’t matter from an audience perspective what nationality someone is. But there were sections where I was just couldn’t understand her, so I was not IN it. It kept throwing me out and that was really disappointing because I thought Cate’s performance was absolutely stunning and engrossing. What did you think of the use of the screen?
Lea: Overall I appreciated it, because it gave some freedom in the staging. So you didn’t have to see their face the whole time. There was the ability for Claire or Solange to be on the bed, or to be in the bathroom – which I thought was one of the most stunning scenes at the end when Cate was just in the bathroom and you couldn’t see her at all on stage, and she was just through the use of the screen…
Sybil: Talking directly to the camera.
Lea: Yeah, and she was kind of like, broken, but also at other times I found myself going – “Don’t look at the screen, don’t look at it. They’re right there. Right there in front of you.”
Sybil: That’s what I found – I found myself looking at the screen. What I loved – there were moments on the bed, in the bathroom that I absolutely loved; and there were moments where they didn’t use it to film the action, which I loved. So they either – like at the end, when they were just filming her legs.
Lea: Or a flower, or her shoe, or a glove or something.
Sybil: Yes, and that was really great.
Lea: Like an addition to the action or something, like a memory of what had happened.
Sybil: But, when the action was happening, and they were both facing towards the audience and they were still filming it, I was finding my eyes drawn upwards and I thought that in those situations – what are we watching – a TV show or live theatre?
Lea: I could appreciate the idea that maybe it was trying to be voyeuristic on the situation, the idea that people are always watching, or that they are actually watching themselves, because the sisters do those ‘performances’ within their own lives? But the screen ended up being a little bit too much – because we’re such a screen society at the moment you have to phyically stop yourself from looking at the screen.
Sybil: One of the things I loved about it though, and I thought was fascinating – and I’m not sure how many actresses could do it – and I think Cate did it much better than Isabelle, is that Cate gave this fabulous theatre performance and yet half of it was delivered in close up to the camera, and she…
Lea: … was brilliant at it.
Sybil: … was absolutely perfect. And they’re two different styles of performance happening concurrently.
Lea: I think she’s adept at both of those styles.
Sybil: Well, yeah, but you could see every emotion flitting across her face. Micro-expressions – the whole thing.
Lea: From both media.
Sybil: Yeah. It was really, really stunning. I mean, the whole thing for me felt like a showcase for Cate.
Lea: I really loved the girl who played the Mistress (Elizabeth Debicki). I mean her commitment to that hideous character was excellent. And what I loved was as soon as she came on stage, you realised how excellently Cate had portrayed her earlier in the show.
Sybil: Yes exactly – fantastic.
Lea: It was like – “Oh stop it!” The flicks of the hair, the posture, the mannerisms. At first I had thought that Cate was over-dramatising the Mistress but…
Sybil: Oh no, no.
Lea: No, she is like that. She is that hideous.
Sybil: No that was really awesome.
Lea: And to torment them so and for them to take it, you have to be quite powerful as a performer to take on Cate and Isabelle.
Sybil: Oh yes! And she did, just a really good job. I loved the set. Loved, loved, loved. I loved that it was all fabulous and chaos and…
Lea: And that absolute freedom to go nuts and crazy and be dirty and messy! I kept thinking about the poor crew who had to then clean and reset and… *evil laughter*
Sybil: Yeah.
Lea: But that last monologue, I found it too much.
Sybil: Well I couldn’t follow a lot of it so I despaired.
Lea: It just went on and on and on and on.
Sybil: And on and on and on.
Lea: And I questioned the director, and the adaptation – what was the point in the length of this monologue – what point did it really make?
Sybil: So I guess, talking about the work rather than the presentation of it: it’s a really fabulous piece for three gifted actresses.
Lea: Yeah, and it’s an adaptation as well, so how far has it been taken away from the original text – what has been added, taken away. But it’s interesting – I want to find out more about the piece historically. You know, find out why it was written.
Sybil: But, oh my god, Cate’s voice!
Lea: I know.
Sybil: It’s like – it’s just… it’s a national treasure!
Lea: I love her commitment to every nuance.
Sybil: But oh. The set, and the costumes, and the shoes. I just wanted to get up there…
Lea: And try them on!
Sybil: Yeah! Although they wouldn’t fit me. Did you see how thin they were?
Lea: I know. When Cate put on that white dress at the end, I mean…
Sybil: I know!
Lea: So what is it out of 5 do you think?
Sybil: I’m going to say it’s around the 4, 4.5 mark. But again, I don’t want to give a mark until I can compare.
Lea: Yeah, go back and have a look. I think it’s around 4 for me. I think it’s because I was never absolutely taken away.
Sybil: I was at times in Cate’s bits.
Lea: I think I was always aware I was in a theatre.
Lea: You know it’s funny, when presented with incredible performances, an amazing set, a renowned director, I was left a little less – well not as moved as I expected to be.
Sybil: But you still might give it a 4?
Lea: Yes. Because of all those elements. It’s interesting thinking about those shows we have given a 5 out of 5 to – like Cut Snake. In comparison, the production values on that show weren’t as high, but their inventiveness was staggering, and the commitment of the performances amazing. It might not have been on such an epic emotional scale…
Sybil: You’re right. Particularly about the commitment of the Cut Snake guys, they were definitely right up there with the commitment shown tonight.
Lea: And we gave a 5 to… I Want to Sleep with Tom Stoppard.
Sybil: Yes! Another Tamarama show.
Lea: Again that was a VERY different play!
Sybil: Very different!
Lea: Much more naturalistic.
Sybil: A modern Australian comedy of manners.
Lea: Just goes to show that a large audience, a bigger budget and a stellar cast doesn’t necessarily equal a more satisfying night at the theatre.

IN SUMMARY

Sybil: Worth the price of admission for the clothes and shoes and set and flowers and… breathing. Cate – amazing. Elizabeth Debicki – a revelation. The last monologue – a problem for me.
Lea: A mixed bag in the end. There was some fabulous energy at times, and some magic moments, but it didn’t gel, it was inconsistent and the end dragged the whole thing down. Wow, that came out a lot darker than I anticipated.

WHERE WE HAD POST SHOW DRINKS: The Bar at the End of the Wharf.
OUR HANGOVER STATUS: Liver bounced back nicely.