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The Maids (French: Les Bonnes) is a 1947 play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris in a production that opened on 17 April 1947, which Louis Jouvet directed. The play by the Maribor Slovene National Theatre in 1969
- April 17, 1947
- Théâtre de l'Athénée, Paris
- French
- Jean Genet
A short summary of Jean Genet's The Maids. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Maids.
Overview. The Maids is an Absurdist drama by French author and playwright Jean Genet that was first performed in 1947 under the French title Les Bonnes. It centers on two maids—sisters Claire and Solange—and their complex relationships with each other and with Madame, their employer.
t THE MAIDS Madame's bedroom. Louis·Quinze furniture. Lace. Rear, a window opening on the front of the house opposite. Right., a bed. Left, a door and a dressing table. Flowers in pro. fusion. The time is evening. [CLAIRE, wearing a slip, is standing with her back to the dressing table. Her gestures-arm extended--<lrul tone are
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The Maids is based on the true story of the Papin sisters, two maids who shocked France in 1933 by murdering their abusive madame and her daughter. Genet’s play uses absurdity to demonstrate the arbitrariness of class designations and the very real struggle of class inequality.
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Synopsis. Jean Genet’s The Maids was inspired by a real-life case of the infamous sisters, Christine and Léa Papin, who murdered their employer and her daughter in 1933. In Genet’s reimagining of the case, sisters Solange and Claire play out the same role play every evening while their wealthy mistress is out of the house.
Genet was falsely accused of theft when he was a child, and he thereafter resolved to become a real thief. He believed that since society had disowned him, he would disown society. The maids are thieves, too, but their use of Madame's possessions is less important than their major role-playing theft of her identity.
