St Ann’s Warehouse to present Donmar Warehouse production of THE MAIDS starring Yerin Ha
Photo credit: Marc Brenner
St. Ann’s Warehouse’s 2025-26 season will culminate with the Donmar Warehouse’s acclaimed production of The Maids, Jean Genet’s masterpiece of class struggle and blurred identity, in a new version written and directed by Kip Williams.
Williams resets Genet’s 1947 classic squarely in the digital age, with performances running at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York City from 17 May - 14 June.
With their mistress away, two maids act out their darkest fantasies about Madame, their abusive “influencer” employer. They obsessively role play all day long, to the point of “murdering” her, until performance and reality begin to blur. Williams’ contemporary take is a timely parable about modern identity and the destructive desire to both emulate and annihilate those we idolize.
Williams’ production features three powerhouse actresses whose performances “are a marvel of speed, focus and technical adroitness” (The Standard UK). Phia Saban (House of the Dragon) and Olivier Award nominee Lydia Wilson are the maids, Solange and Claire; and Bridgerton breakout star Yerin Ha is Madame, their mistress.
In Williams’ version, featuring spectacular video design by Zakk Hein and set design by Rosanna Vize, the characters act out and broadcast their fantasies live on their phones. The livestreamed content, filtered to oblivion, looms over Madame’s posh, soulless boudoir, amplifying the treacherous game of dressup unfolding within.
St. Ann’s Artistic Director Susan Feldman said: “What most attracted me was the outsized scale of the imagery to which these poor girls aspired, available to them (or anyone for that matter) at the touch of their fingertips on their pocket phones 24/7. With a click their deepest hopes burst into fleeting reality with unforgettable size and power, creating false memories and broken dreams one after the other, consuming them with what they could never attain in real life. It’s a modern tragedy pushed to the nth degree.”