American Players Theatre reflects the humiliation of immigrants in 'The Maids'

By Mike Fischer, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

July 5, 2017

Playwright Jean Genet was born to a prostitute and spent portions of his early years working as one.  He spent his final years as a passionate advocate for Algerian immigrants and Palestinian refugees. 

During the interim, Genet wrote “The Maids,” a 1947 play that looks back with both anger and compassion at the humiliation of his youth. 

Director Gigi Buffington’s searing and riveting American Players Theatre production of his play – in which the actors playing the titular characters are, like Buffington, Latinx – honors the Genet who championed the dispossessed, while showing us a mirror reflecting the way we live now. It opened July 1 in APT’s indoor Touchstone Theatre in Spring Green.

Set in a sleek and sophisticated contemporary American bedroom suggesting upscale urban living in a place like New York’s upper west side, this 95-minute play begins with a game of dress-up, involving sisters who are also maids imagining life as their boss.  

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