THE NIGHT OF DIONYSOS
APOCALYPSE
TRISTANISOLDE
THE MAIDS
DELIRIUM OF A CHILDHOOD

ISMAEL IVO

THE MAIDS

The world of the maids is a prison. Everything around them speaks of it – their small attic room, their house-servant’s role, their incestuous relationship. The only ”excursions” they’ve any right to are their secret pranks – their daily dressing-up between silken walls and the luxurious objects belonging to their superb, temperamental and omnipresent warder, Madame. The maids want to escape from what is for them an unbearable existence. What begins as dreaming and play soon turns into cruel reality. The maids plan the murder of their mistress in a kind of fever which, fanned by love and hate, turns into desire. A desire for crime.
Jean Genet’s sexual poetry and the respective theatrical traditions of Ismael Ivo (Brazil), Koffi Kôkô (Benin), Ziya Azazi (Turky) and Yoshi Oïda (Japan) are at the centre of this new dance theatre production.
Genet is synonymous with literary provocation. He does not only break the taboos of European morality, but also describes the position of the radically different, the social outcast.
The decision by the producer Yoshi Oïda to work with three dancers of African and Oriental origin, is fully in the spirit of Genet, who strove to develop theatre further towards ritual Oriental theatre forms. In line with Oriental tradition, the women’s roles are played by men. João de Bruço, Brazilian musician and composer , supports the evening with his ritual rhythms of strong atmosphere, interwoven by quotes spoken by himself.

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