The Maids and Deathwatch: Two Plays
by Jean Genet
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The two plays collected in this volume represent Genet's first attempts to analyze the mores of a bourgeois society he had previously been content simply to vilify. In The Maids, two domestic workers, deeply resentful of their inferior social position, try to revenge themselves against society by destroying their employer. When their attempt to betray their mistress's lover to the police fails and they are in danger of being found out, they dream of murdering Madame, little aware of the true show more power behind their darkest fantasy. In Deathwatch, two convicts try to impress a third, who is on the verge of achieving legendary status in criminal circles. But neither realizes the lengths to which they will go to gain respect or that, in the end, nothing they can do, including murder, will get them what they are searching for. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
The plays were definitely really good and I would love love love to see them performed, but I think one of the things that amused me most was Sartre's introduction. He was of course an admirer of Genet's work and he and a few influential others kept the man out of jail for the latter part of his life because they said Genet was a genius, but from the introduction it totally seems like Sartre's favourite thing about Genet was that he was gay. So avant-garde and anti-establishment! Oh, Sartre.
These two plays by Jean Genet both deal with themes of murder and subtle homoeroticism. However, it is the former story, The Maids, that is most dazzling as an examination of envy, control, and murder. The characters are so wrought by mania and the line between reality and fantasy is so blurred that the reader is sucked into the madness of the two sisters plotting to kill their mistress. The same amount of tension is present in Deathwatch, but is is harder to empathize with the characters. Together though, this volume of existential drama is unable to be dismissed. Highly engrossing and thought provoking.
Dark works by the French playwright. The Maids is an examination of two maids who fantasize killing their mistress, based on an actual case. The ambiguous ending is quite good. The other is set in a prison cell where inmates discuss who has the bigger crime, and other important issues of an inmates life, while waiting trial and possibly execution. Petty squabbling turns sinister and deadly. Well written, interesting works.
I saw The Maids performed once by the Towson State theater department. I saw them perform an Ionescu play too. & maybe Neil Simon's (?) version of "Awakenings"? A pretty good selection of plays brought to us by Paul (?) Berman (sp?) of sd theater department. Strange to remember b/c I have so little respect for the university or, even more so, the neighborhood in the suburbs of Baltimore. The Maids is a powerful play about the covetousness & vicarious living of people forced into demeaned social positions. Genet is, of course, a 'master' at depicting such things.
Genet' "The Maids" is an intense theater experience on paper or live.
An analytical view of the bourgoisie existentalist drama most sublime :)
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146+ Works 10,283 Members
Jean Genet was born in Paris, France on December 19, 1910. He was an illegitimate child abandoned by his mother, raised by Public Assistance, and sent to live with foster parents at the age of seven. At the age of 10 he was accused of stealing. He spent five years at the Mettray Reformatory and as a young adult spent time in various European show more prisons for vagrancy, homosexuality, theft, and smuggling. He began writing in 1942, while in prison. His works include Our Lady of the Flowers, Miracle of the Rose, and The Thief's Journal. In 1948, he was convicted of burglary for the 10th time and condemned to automatic life imprisonment. However, by 1947, his works had gained attention from such writers as Jean-Paul Sartre, André Gide, and Jean Cocteau. After the sentence, they petitioned for his release and a pardon was granted. In the late 1940s, Genet began to write for the theatre, but several of his plays were too controversial to be performed in France. His plays included The Maids, Deathwatch, The Blacks, and The Balcony. He died on April 15, 1986. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Les bonnes et Haute surveillance
- Original publication date
- 1962
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- Members
- 534
- Popularity
- 56,146
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.80)
- Languages
- English, French, Portuguese
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 9
