Jean Genet’s play The Maids (or Les Bonnes) premiered in Paris at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in 1947. By this time, Genet was already an established novelist and playwright, but this one-act play was his first foray into the conventions and aesthetics of the movement now known as the Theatre of the Absurd. The Maids is based on the true story of the Papin sisters, two maids who shocked France in 1933 by murdering their abusive madame and her daughter. Genet’s play uses absurdity to demonstrate the arbitrariness of class designations and the very real struggle of class inequality.

The word “absurd” describes the state of being out of harmony or not governed by reason and logic. The absurdist philosophy arose from The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), in which French author Albert Camus compares human existence to Sisyphus from Greek mythology, a man who angered the gods and was condemned to eternally roll a heavy boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down each time. According to Camus, “The absurd arises when the human need to understand and reason meets the unreasonableness of the world.” This idea of the absurd was heightened by the unprecedented horrors of World War II (1939-1945), such as the mechanized death made possible by new technologies, the atrocities of the Holocaust, and the United States’ utter destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bomb. Additionally, the subsequent Cold War created the omnipresent threat of unexpected death and annihilation.

Unlike many major modernist theatrical movements, such as realism, naturalism, dadaism, or symbolism, absurdism in theater was not a conscious movement. There were no absurdist manifestos or deliberately defined rules. The term wasn’t coined until 1961, when critic and scholar Martin Esslin published The Theatre of the Absurd, a highly influential monograph in which he identified several playwrights who were independently influenced and inspired by the work of Camus, including Eugène Ionesco (The Bald Soprano, The Chairs), Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot, Endgame), and Jean Genet.

Plot Summary

Solange and her younger sister Claire, both in their early 30s, are maids in the home of Madame, a wealthy and beautiful woman who is about 25. The action of the play occurs in semi-distorted real time with no act breaks. The Maids takes place in Madame’s bedroom and opens with what Solange and Claire refer to as a ceremony, in which the sisters take turns roleplaying as Madame while Madame is out of the house. In this instance, Claire plays Madame, wearing her dresses and putting on her makeup and jewelry. She verbally abuses Solange, who roleplays as Claire, but Solange-as-Claire antagonizes her back. The alarm clock always sounds and ends the ritual before the sisters can complete it by killing Madame. The sisters fight and insult each other, and Claire confronts Solange because she saw her one night standing over Madame’s bed, trying to murder Madame but losing her nerve. Because of their ritual, Claire sees Solange’s desire to kill Madame as a desire to kill Claire.

The phone rings, and Claire speaks to Monsieur, Madame’s lover. Monsieur was jailed after being arrested for an unspecified crime involving money and theft based on an anonymous letter that Claire wrote to the police. Monsieur has been released on bail, and Claire panics that she will be found out. She resolves to kill Madame by poisoning her tea with phenobarbital. Madame returns, distraught and disillusioned with the trappings of her rich socialite lifestyle. Monsieur’s arrest and absence led her to realize that she only cares about him. Dejectedly, she gifts her fine furs and a one-of-a-kind designer dress to the maids, asserting that she has no more use for expensive clothing. Claire tries to give Madame the poisoned tea, but Madame isn’t interested.

When Madame learns about the phone call and Monsieur’s release, her mood suddenly changes. She excitedly prepares to go out and meet him, casually reclaiming her furs and renewing her interest in her wealth. Madame sends Solange to hail a taxi and waits impatiently for her return. Claire continues to urge Madame to drink the tea, but Madame refuses. After Madame leaves, Solange insists that they perform the ritual. Claire plays Madame again, but she is paranoid that the real Madame will return and grows frightened as Solange takes the game in a new direction. Claire starts to feel sick, so Solange helps her to the kitchen. Solange returns alone and in a lengthy, confusing monologue announces that she has killed Madame. She holds imaginary conversations with invisible people about the aftermath, which leads to Solange’s execution. Claire reenters and, despite Solange’s repeated discouragement, demands her tea and drinks it. Solange imagines that Madame is the one who drinks the poison and dies.