The Maids Off-Broadway Reviews

The Maids is an ideal vehicle for Williams’s “cinetheatre” approach. Politically, his theatrical strategy addresses our moment, which is defined by mediated realities, performed identities, and widening class divisions. Williams’s technologic...

The Maids is an ideal vehicle for Williams’s “cinetheatre” approach. Politically, his theatrical strategy addresses our moment, which is defined by mediated realities, performed identities, and widening class divisions. Williams’s technological innovations also serve the play’s drama of self-immolation; its barrage of images, screens, reflections, and heightened language intensifies the play’s exploration of narcissism.

Without the threat of real violence, Williams’s The Maids gets stuck in its admittedly pretty surfaces. For a while, that’s more than enough to keep us engaged. Wilson and Saban maintain a laser focus through their ritualistic routines while adro...

Without the threat of real violence, Williams’s The Maids gets stuck in its admittedly pretty surfaces. For a while, that’s more than enough to keep us engaged. Wilson and Saban maintain a laser focus through their ritualistic routines while adroitly recording their movements with iPhones (and adding filters in real time). By the end, Wilson’s Claire dons a designer gown and metallic wig while meeting her daily step-count goal on an offstage treadmill. I’m not sure what it has to do with Genet, but the commitment is admirable.

Even at its most heightened moments, The Maids never captures the electrifying danger that comes with witnessing either the consequences of the characters’ behavior or something revolutionary being done with the theatrical form. The production is s...

Even at its most heightened moments, The Maids never captures the electrifying danger that comes with witnessing either the consequences of the characters’ behavior or something revolutionary being done with the theatrical form. The production is so concerned with making itself contemporary, in transforming the text into a treatise on the artificiality of our current age, that it’s made no room for anyone’s soul.

Williams’s cine-theatre is an interesting device, but what’s more compelling as a viewer is the way in which human desire and action gets distorted or revealed through these technical whirls. Use a video camera all you want, but wield it with int...

Williams’s cine-theatre is an interesting device, but what’s more compelling as a viewer is the way in which human desire and action gets distorted or revealed through these technical whirls. Use a video camera all you want, but wield it with intention. Don’t make the screen an end unto itself.

Which isn’t to say the performances aren’t captivating. But unlike Williams’ The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which Sarah Snook transformed into 26 characters before our eyes with the help of an onstage film crew, The Maids gets stuck in a self-r...

Which isn’t to say the performances aren’t captivating. But unlike Williams’ The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which Sarah Snook transformed into 26 characters before our eyes with the help of an onstage film crew, The Maids gets stuck in a self-referential cycle that acts more as commentary than captivating theater.