Review: THE MAIDS by Jean Genet, Mad Cat Theatre, Austin
by David Glen Robinson
Mad Cat Theatre Company is a welcome addition to Austin's theatre scene and its inaugural production of The Maids by Jean Genet is an ambitious career step for talented founders Maddie Scanlan and Allison Paranka. Both have taken star turns in Austin with Elizabeth Newman’s Filigree Theatre. Scanlan had notable roles in Suddenly Last Summer and The Last Match, and Paranka was in Summer and Smoke. They have many additional credits in Austin and elsewhere. The conjunction of their stars bodes well for their fledgling theatre company.
The Maids, first performed in 1947 in Paris, offers themes of class oppression, fetishism, homosexuality, murder, and suicide. As the show program states, “It involves intense psychological abuse, physical abuse, sadomasochism, and themes of suicide and murder.”
Those topics are the thematic stew Genet stirs to accomplish his absurdist criticism of class differences. And Jean Genet (1910-1986) was singularly well-qualified to cook that stew. From his tenage years, he was sent to French prisons for violent crimes and moral offenses (i..e., homosexual acts, still illegal in France at the time). Later, as a writer, he brought his experiences to bear in angry social activism.
The performances as scripted may have seemed more outré in Genet’s day than in ours, but The Maids does not lose its bite either way. Themes and dialogues are woven together in Genet’s overwritten style, which could be cut in many ways, according to director Maggie Scanlan. This cast's excellent performances cut through it all.
The work is an ensemble play with three characters: the two maids, Claire (Allison Paranka) and Solange (Maddie Scanlan), and their unnamed upper-class employer "Madame" (Angelina Castillo). The action takes place in Madame's bedroom and starts with fetishistic role-playing between the maids while Madame is away. One woman plays the maid, the other Madame, inflicting verbal and physical abuse in arch, over-the-top style. Then they trade roles. This interplay encompasses the emotional range of the story but only some of the plot. A rare treat to the audience is the opportunity of watching actors playing nonactors playing actors.
With their role-playing the maids plot the murder of Madame.
Madame returns home and slaps the kibosh on the shenanigans, hurling the maids back to the kitchen and laundry. Her tongue lashings are mean enough to raise blisters and a few bubbles of sympathy for her servants' plotting against her. Angelina Castillo applies the appropriate, quite extreme tone to her lines. After all, she represents the French upper classes, whose rule, according to Genet, was evidently “if you can’t say it with sarcasm, say nothing at all.”
Madame said plenty. The maids tried to serve her poisoned tea, but Madame, agitated by the prospect of finding her lover released from jail, prepared to leave again. Comes the black comedy: the maids made increasingly comical efforts to convince, entice, insist, and cajole Madame to drink the poisoned tea. In an interesting bit of frame-bending, perhaps metatheatrical, Madame sniffed dismissively, “You’re trying to kill me with my ‘tay’!”
Claire stands behind her wide-eyed. Madame leaves, the maids’ amateurish plot inadvertently dashed. Bitter, angry sadomasochistic scenes ensue and lead to a tragic end.
The direction and performances created a dark, sparkling gem of a play.
Mad Cat Theatre’s production revives Genet’s diatribes against class conflict and injustice writ large. The choice of the play and successful production speak to the new social awareness of American theatre's mainstream. This new company has plunged into it, and we look forward with anticipation to its future productions.
The Maids runs another week, to August 16th, 2026, in East Austin.
The Maids
by Jean Genet
Mad Cat Theatre
August 07 - August 16, 2026
August 7 - 16, 2026
Smelt House, Austin
INDUSTRY NIGHT IS WEDNESDAY AUGUST 12TH. USE CODE 'INDUSTRY' FOR 50% OFF YOUR TICKET.
