Reviews - The Maids and The Manor

The Maids
Review by Moya Stubbs.

Based on the French play Les Bonnes by Jean Genet, The Maids is a complicated story about power struggles and class systems that is importantly, also a performance which explores performance. The central characters are two sisters, Solonge and Claire, housemaids who spend the hours when their mistress, ‘Madame’, is absent constructing elaborate, sadomasochistic fantasies, in her rooms and whilst wearing her clothes, about the power struggle between themselves and their mistress.

The performance was an admirable effort, the text is very difficult and in parts quite disjointed. I did, however, find this portrayal of the Madame by a man to seem to make a mockery of the deeper elements of the play, in particular the complex, emotional struggle of the two girls and eventually their tragic demise. I understand that the text indicates the character of Madame should be a cross-dressing role but in this particular case I found the performance terribly amusing which made it distracting from the rest of the story.

The set was dressed straightforwardly but effectively. The maid’s costumes were also simple but very effective. The lighting could do with a little development in some places and we had a few hiccoughs on the first night, but that can happen to the best of us.

On the whole, it was a very interesting performance. The text is a difficult one for actors and audience alike. It is deliberately disjointed and leaves questions in the air, while the characters spend the hour switching roles, exploring performance and in particular gender performance.

Congratulations to all involved.

The Maids runs until Saturday 15 August at 9:00pm in the Guild Theatre, Union House. $15/$12/$10. Bookings: 0406 527 561


The Manor
Review by Seamus Magee

The Manor opens with a few simple statements of fact about an average politicians wage versus that of an average carer. It then it tells you the facts about Pine-O-Clean.

The Manor paints an unsentimental picture of life for the disabled and their carers without wallowing in self-pity or despair. A minimal set, with scattered white furniture leads you into a world of confinement, sterility and co-dependency. Within this world the show's 2 characters 'PWD' - played by Sarah Whitaker - and 'Carer' - Josua Lynzaat spiral episodically around the same routine, the same conversations and the same spaces in an almost 'Godot-ian' universe.

Carer is presented as a bit of well.... a loser who's employers since school have included Coles, Safeway and a local video store. PWD just wants to be able to get by out in the real world, and really looked forward to living in a share house, "The Manor". The reality of "The Manor" is more bleak: Visitors never arrive, TV never changes and nothing really happens unless by the neglect or incompetence of Carer. The audience finds itself laughing at scenarios in the play which, if played out in real life, would be the fodder of Today Tonight and the rantings of politicians. It also makes you wonder if any of these instances have come from real-life experience.

There are no saints or martyrs in The Manor. It succeeds in getting an audience to laugh while portraying a bleak and confining world of a disabled person and a carer. It presents a slice of life which is thought provoking, well thought out and makes its point very well without preaching to it's audience. The reality it portrays speaks for itself.

The Manor runs until Saturday 15 August at 6:30pm in the Guild Theatre, Union House. $12/$10. Bookings: 0432 763 552 or boonhan.koh@gmail.com

Photography by Shayen Wong.