Genet's 'the maids' gets a shockingly modern makeover – starring bridgerton’s ha
Jean Genet’s notoriously complex and darkly seductive drama, ‘The Maids,’ is about to be unleashed on a new generation, thanks to writer-director Kip Williams’s audacious reimagining at St. Ann’s Warehouse. But this isn’t your grandmother’s interpretation; Williams has radically updated the play, casting Yerin Ha as Madame – a disgraced heiress now operating as a disturbingly influential Instagram influencer – and positioning the brutal power dynamics at its core with unsettling precision.
A digital dynasty of cruelty
For decades, ‘The Maids’ has captivated theatergoers with its exploration of sex, power, and identity, attracting heavyweights like Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert to the demanding roles. Now, Ha, fresh off her stratospheric rise to stardom through Netflix’s ‘Bridgerton,’ brings a new layer of intensity to the production, alongside co-stars Phoebe Dyck and Saoirse Ronan as the tormented housemaids, Claire and Solange. The play’s core – a simmering, unspoken desire for murder amongst a household defined by manipulation and resentment – remains brutally intact.
“Every director wants to do ‘The Maids’ – for some, it’s their ‘Hamlet’,” reflects Lydia Wilson, who joins the cast alongside Ha and Saban. “It's a play that demands to be wrestled with, and Kip has somehow managed to translate its gothic claustrophobia into a distinctly 21st-century anxiety.”
Williams’s script isn’t merely a modernization; it’s a deliberate deconstruction. He’s traded the play’s original setting for a world saturated with the trappings of wealth and Social Media – follower counts, designer labels, and the relentless pursuit of a magazine cover. The director subtly shifts the narrative focus, positioning the audience as complicit observers of the maids’ escalating horrors, drawing them into the suffocating atmosphere with a chilling intimacy.
“It was a bit of a revelation,” says Wilson, recalling her initial reaction to Williams’s script. “I read it in a coffee shop the day he sent it. I was just laughing out loud like, Oh, my God, the audacity to turn it this modern and to give it such a spin.”
Ha herself notes a significant evolution in her understanding of Madame. “Coming back into the rehearsal room, I felt like I was ready, but also hoping to expand and dive deeper into what we had already explored. That’s a real gift, because it doesn’t come often.” The actress’s recent string of high-profile roles – including her leading role in ‘Bridgerton’ and her upcoming Ambassador of the Actor Awards title – has catapulted her into the international spotlight, fueling her excitement for this complex and challenging part. “I feel like the way I understand Madame now comes through a new lens,” she explains, examining “materialism, and this obsession with youth and beauty, and the role that it plays in our society.”
The production’s success is a testament to Williams's ability to retain the play’s unsettling core while injecting it with a potent dose of contemporary relevance. “Diving deeper into those themes and how that resonates with me today, versus how it resonated with me a year ago—that has shifted as well,” Ha adds. The text embraces those themes with a lurid, absurdist sense of humor that spares no one. “That’s the wild thing about acting,” says Saban, who will be known to some as Halaena Targaryen on HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon.’ “If you’re lucky enough to do something that has enough attention to qualify for press, there’s this strange dissonance between presenting the appealing side of yourself, but then hopefully, in your work, getting to explore being horrific.”
‘The Maids’ opens May 17th at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, marking the latest transatlantic success story for a production that refuses to fade into obscurity.