The Maids x2 ..... /2

Okay, so this was an interesting night of theater. I went to go see The Maids x2 done by EgoPo productions of New Orleans, who I believe is teaming up with the Jean Cocteau Repertory and playing at the Bowerie Lane Theatre. I walk in, and there's an announcement that they don't have the rights to show the second half of their show, so it was essentially just The Maids. And not x2. I was pretty bummed, because I was pretty intrigued by the second half.

Let me give you some backstory. The show The Maids x2 was written by Jean Genet. It's a one act play about two sister maids who are plotting to kill their Madame. They're crazy. As is the Madame. It's intense. But anyhow, Genet had written it with the maids to be played by boys in drag, which is apparently how he likes all his female parts played. In any case, the evening was supposed to showcase The Maids pretty traditionally with an all female cast, and then The Maids again after a dinner break with all males in a prison cell. This second version, however, did not make people with rights so happy.

So my allotted three and a half hours of theater became one and a quarter, and I only saw the female version. It was a pretty solid production of the Maids. The play itself is great, in my opinion, if you like really twisted messed up plays. The acting is not too bad, and I thought overall it was a pretty good show. I have a little bias because I did a little of The Maids when I was in school.

I would really have liked to see the contrast of the second version of The Maids. I think that it would have been a pretty intriguing artistic interpretation, but c'est la vie. We'll see how the whole rights controversy goes.