THE MAIDS (l-r) Diane D'Aquila, Ron Kennell
IN THE NEXT ROOM (or the Vibrator Play) by American playwright, Sarah Ruhl opened at the Tarragon Theatre on Wednesday, Sept. 21, and THE MAIDS by French playwright Jean Genet opened at Buddies in Bad times theatre last night, September 22.
Both deal with sex, kinky behaviour, loneliness, hiding a secret life, and certainly both plays are ‘a little out there.’
IN THE NEXT ROOM (or the Vibrator Play)
It’s the 1880s in a prosperous town outside New York City, in the house of Dr. Givings and his wife Catherine. Dr. Givings has his doctor’s office in the house. He calls it his Operating Theatre, which might startle patients so he just refers to it ‘in the next room.’
He has invented a machine that uses electricity to help women with something referred to then as ‘hysteria’ with symptoms like lethargy, ill-temper, restlessness. Dr. Givings tells one patient, Mrs. Daldry that she has congestion in her womb and this instrument, which he calls a vibrator, will produce a ‘paroxysm’ and help loosen some of the juices and ease her congestion.
In the 1880s this was new medical territory. It’s tempting to snicker because we know what the doctor is talking about even though he is straight laced about it. But the play is not a send-up of Victorian morality or early sexuality. The play is deeper and more thoughtful than that.
For example, Mrs. Givings is a young mother of an infant and she can’t nurse her baby because she doesn’t produce much milk. She thinks she’s inadequate as a mother.
They hire a wet nurse named Elizabeth who has just lost her baby, so she nurses Mrs. Givings’ baby. That’s touching and heartbreaking for both women.
Because Dr. Givings is so serious and proper and really treats his wife like a young child,
Mrs. Givings is lonely. And she’s curious. She hears low moans coming out of the next room where Mrs. Daldry is being treated and she wants to know what’s going on. Mrs. Givings does a lot of listening at the door of the next room.
So when her husband is not at home, Mrs. Givings is shown how the vibrator works by Mrs. Daldry. They take turns using it. It gives a physical pleasure Mrs. Givings had not really experienced before. Mrs. Daldry has experienced this pleasure during her treatments and of course wants more.
Dr. Givings is reluctant to give his wife any treatment— medically unethical he feels, so there is a tension between them.
As I said, this play isn’t a send-up of Victorian morality but you wouldn’t know it from director Richard Rose’s heavy-handed production. How do they do?
Badly.
Except for a few fine performances. This is a really disappointing production.
In one scene Mrs. Givings, holding her baby, is urged by her husband to get out of sight as a patient is at the door. She hides in the closet with the baby.
Dumb.
There’s a lot of deliberate upstage when two scenes are going on at the same time. You almost expect the cast to wink and leer our way. In some cases actors are encouraged to play broadly.
The last scene is terribly important because Dr. Givings and his wife finally communicate like husband and wife and lovers. Richard Rose plays the whole thing in the dark.
This is cheat suggesting he has no faith in the play or the actors. Ruhl obviously meant the scene to be played in the light, to show the couple’s sexual awakening.
The thing that just overwhelms everything is the set by David Boechler, who also designed the costumes. Sarah Ruhl is clear about the set in her stage directions.
“Sumptuous rugs and sumptuous wallpaper.” She didn’t say ‘it should be hideous’. The wallpaper is a hideous black or dark colour with a busy design. The rugs look like gaudy huge flowers by Georgia O’Keefe. On closer look and thought I see that there is a design in the wallpaper that might be similar to female genitalia with something protruding up.
Symbolism? No just hideous. The set is also oddly designed with the audience on either side not seeing part of the set. It is a tricky set up that does not need to be as deeply recessed as it is.
As I said, there are some fine performances. I am really impressed with Marci T. House who plays Elizabeth, the wet nurse. Ms House conveys Elizabeth’s dignity and sadness. She is obviously a woman still grieving for her dead baby and it’s palpable in this terrific performance.
I also love Elizabeth Saunders who plays Annie, the doctor’s nurse. Annie is stoical and is hiding a secret that also makes her feel lost and alone. In whatever I’ve seen Elizabeth Saunders do, she digs deep into the heart and soul of her characters. It’s all there in this performance.
As Dr. Givings, David Storch is prim and proper, perhaps stodgy and quite moving in the end, if you could see him.
Good as these few performances are, I can’t recommend this production. The play is much better than this production.
THE MAIDS
THE MAIDS is a more complex play, with lots of layers, rather than just kinky although the story is eye-brow knitting. It’s about social attitudes, politics, class distinctions; the haves vs. the have nots; being an outsider.
Of course you have to consider the writer and the source of the play. Jean Genet’s mother was a prostitute who left him at a young age to be brought up by others. In spite of being adopted by a loving couple, Genet got into trouble; went to jail for the first time when he was 15 and lived a life as a male prostitute, a vagabond a petty thief and eventually a writer.
THE MAIDS was written in 1947. It’s Genet’s second play and is based on a true story of two sisters who were maids who brutally killed their employer and her daughter.
In THE MAIDS two sisters, Claire and Solange have a nightly routine when their employer, known as Mistress, is out. They take turns playing Mistress and the Maid.
So at the opening. Claire is playing Mistress, and Solange is taking the identity of Claire.
As Mistress, Claire orders her sister to dress her, bring out her shoes, the jewels etc. Mistress is rude, abusive and arrogant. The Maid is meek, submissive and secretly angry.
We get the idea that that is how Mistress treats the two Maids.
The idea of the exercise is that in the end, the Maid will kill the Mistress. But they always run out of time before they get to that part. Mistress comes home and the Maids revert back to their real roles.
As a production THE MAIDS a happier result than IN THE NEXT ROOM (or the Vibrator Play). It’s a fabulous production.
First the translation by Martin Crimp is sharp, contemporary, accessible and in your face.
Director Brendan Healy has a vision of the world of Mistress that is sumptuous. Healy is such a fine director, taking difficult texts and bringing clarity, intelligence and sensitivity, but also going one step further and keeping things on edge.
The set by Julie Fox creates that world. It’s all pink or plum depending on the effective lighting by Kimberley Purtell. Pink walls, light pink broadloom. A bed with a pink, satin cover. Pink antique tables. It’s all neat, pristine, warm and rich.
Healy does an interesting thing with the cast. It’s been said that Genet meant for THE MAIDS to be acted by adolescent boys. I have always seen the play performed by women.
Here Healy casts a man to play one of the Maids. At the beginning of the production, Ron Kennell is playing Mistress. He wears a long curly blonde wig, knee high stockings and black bikini briefs. He is clearly a man but has the body language of an elegant woman.
He talks quietly as does Diana D’Aquila as the other Maid. They both are like meek mice scurrying around all that luxury, while they lament and are bitter that they live in a bleak attic.
When the game ends Kennell takes off the wig and reveals a buzzed head. Then he puts on the tight, black wig of the Maid. There is a startling surprise with the other Maid—I won’t tell you, but the whole idea of gender, identity is turned upside down. This is a terrific idea by Healy.
I think the cast is superb. I’ve never seen Ron Kennell so good both as Mistress and the Maid. He is the more submissive of the two Maids. He has a grace and an elegance.
Diane D’Aquila as the other Maid is fretful, fierce, fiery and dangerous. This is a powerhouse performance.
And as the real Mistress, Maria Ricossa is flighty, to the manor born, and has that light disdain that is like being pricked by needles.
The cast is superb.
So is the production.
Don’t miss this one.
IN THE NEXT ROOM (or the Vibrator Play) continues at Tarragon Theatre Mainspace until Oct. 23.
THE MAIDS continues at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre until October 9.