Visceral version of murderous maids divides the critics

Donmar Warehouse

Kip Williams, the writer/director who had a huge success last year with his adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, has turned his attention to Jean Genet’s 1947 classic The Maids. Williams’ familiar use of screens is again prominent in this visceral version of the story of two maids who plot to murder their mistress. The screens project the social media conscious women’s digital images as they act out their fantasies and plot against their employer. The frantic pace elicited a full range of reactions in the reviews from 1 to 5 stars. Whether you find the production ‘conveys the corrupt value systems and ludicrous hierarchies of much of 21st-century culture’ or ‘has nothing new or interesting to say’ may depend on your taste.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

Five stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe, one of the least generous critics when it comes to handing out stars, loved it: ‘Williams’ experiential production conveys the corrupt value systems and ludicrous hierarchies of much of 21st-century culture with visceral force: it crushes nuance beneath Bottega Veneta heels and assaults our eyes with fake spectacle. It’s draining, it’s overwhelming, it’s kind of gross – and it’s brilliant.’

Four stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar complimented Kip Williams’ take on Genet’s original work, saying he ‘gives a modern meaning to the play through the technology itself: influencer image-making and online celebrity culture are critiqued. The analogy is obvious, once it is introduced, and ingenious (….) The slippages into fantasy, for all three women, are into a curated online space of augmented reality and performance.’ She praised the cast: ‘There are storming performances, especially from Saban and Wilson, and a hurtling dread as the projections become wilder, the set seeming to disassemble as their inner worlds crack apart.’

Calling it a ‘wild ride’, The Standard’s Nick Curtis Williams said ‘Williams draws powerful and intricately precise performances from a magnetic Lydia Wilson and relative newcomers Phia Saban and Yerin Ha.’

Cheryl Markosky for BroadwayWorld described it as ‘a hugely strong play with a moving denouement where no one escapes from a spiral of love and hate in a fantasy social media world.’ She also described the ‘terrific set design by Rosanna Vize’: ‘luxurious white wall-to-wall carpeted bedroom stuffed with ostentatious flowers and tall wardrobe doors with mirrors and shiny surfaces’.

Three stars ⭑⭑⭑

Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski found: ‘For a good half an hour there’s something totally hypnotic about the blur of wild visuals and undigested, darkly comic loathing that pours out of the women’s mouths. It’s exhilarating, hilarious, horrifying stuff. But the trouble is it doesn’t really have anywhere to go.’ He noted: ‘A tonal gearshift in the middle would have really done so much for it. But I still think you should see it. The cast is great, especially Wilson. And did I mention it looks incredible?’

Alex Wood for WhatsOnStage found: ‘The production is, without doubt, a feast of bells and whistles – technically immaculate, visually audacious, and conceptually dense – but that polish sometimes comes at the expense of intimacy (…) Bells and whistles are all well and good – but sometimes they just add to the noise.’

Olivia Rook at LondonTheatre said: ‘Williams leans heavily on hilariously grotesque Snapchat filters and live streaming through Zakk Hein’s video design, cleverly implicating the superficial world of social media in the unravelling of maids Solange and Claire. They crave visibility, but are repeatedly denied any form of independent identity’. Like other critics, she observed that Kip Williams’ version of Genet’s play ‘is still grasping to find something more than its surface-level spectacle.’

The Times’ Clive Davis declared: ‘The set is the winner in this manic update’ but asked: ‘does all this frippery — the vibrant visuals leave you feeling as if you’ve been locked in a cupboard with Paris Hilton and Katie Price — make the play, which has been baffling audiences since 1947, any more comprehensible?’ Apparently not.

2 stars ⭑⭑

The Independent’s Alice Saville complained: ‘it feels like spending one hour and forty minutes eavesdropping on private conversations that are so trivial you wish you hadn’t bothered. Like a smartphone filter, it creates a pretty picture – but seeing the uglier realities underneath would have been more interesting.’

Claire Allfree for the Telegraph didn’t like what she heard: ‘The dialogue is a relentless hyperactive stream of toxic, quasi-ironic OMG-style hyperbole.’ Nor what she saw: ‘Williams’s faintly misogynistic production may playfully gesture towards a nightmarish, narcissistic online future in which women are eaten alive by their own trout pouts, but it fundamentally resembles a mirror of itself – a two-dimensional onslaught of eye-rolling vacuity.’ Her final message was: ‘Genet’s play is hard to like at the best of times. In Williams’s version, it’s borderline unwatchable.’

1 star ⭑

The Express’ Stefan Kyriazis had a terrible evening: ‘For 100 interminable minutes that felt far, far longer, three actors on stage screamed at each other, at full speed, non-stop, barely taking a breath. It’s exhausting.’ He continued: ‘It has nothing new or interesting to say and treats the important social and mental health issues it raises with as little respect as it treats us’. His final message: ‘Avoid at all costs.’

Critics’ average rating 3.1⭑

The Maids can be seen at The Donmar Warehouse until 29 November 2025. Buy tickets direct from the theatre.

Read Paul Seven Lewis’ 5 star review here

If you’ve seen this production of The Maids, please leave your comment, review and/or rating below