Cate Blanchett and The Maids Pack Their Bags at City Center Aug. 16 | Playbill

Related Articles
News Cate Blanchett and The Maids Pack Their Bags at City Center Aug. 16 The Sydney Theatre Company production of The Maids, Jean Genet's psychological stage drama about power and class that stars Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett, ends its limited New York City run Aug. 16 after previews that began Aug. 6 as part of the 2014 Lincoln Center Festival.

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/7ea5e2edc1403ede71a3c422dcc7b261-maids200_1407272523.jpg
Elizabeth Debicki and Cate Blanchett in The Maids Photo by Lisa Tomasetti

Directed by Benedict Andrews, The Maids arrived in New York after a June 2013 engagement in Sydney. The limited, 13-performance engagement officially opened Aug. 8 at New York City Center.

Critics were mixed on the production that was a hot ticket among theatregoers. Read the reviews here.

"The challenge with Genet is to not smooth over the dangerous, often ugly, underbelly of his work," Blanchett told Playbill. "His obsession with murder, death, claustrophobia, brutality, dominance and submission. That's why it was so exciting to work on a new adaptation, which was at once brutal, shocking, lyrical and poetic." Read the full interview here.

The Maids features Blanchett ("Blue Jasmine," A Streetcar Named Desire) and Isabelle Huppert as servants Claire and Solange, with Elizabeth Debicki as Madame.

The staging has production design by Alice Babidge and lighting design by Nick Schlieper.

Here's how it's billed: "The play is set in a glamorous apartment crammed with flowers. Two maids, Claire and Solange (Blanchett and Huppert), are nearing the end of their psychological tether. Each night the sisters play a deadly game, or ceremony, creating their own theater in which they take turns playing the role of their mistress (Debicki)."

Visit LincolnCenterFestival.org.

 
RELATED:
Today’s Most Popular News:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!