Review: The Maids, Greenwich Playhouse

Jean Genet's The Maids is a wilfully confusing play, which highlights the illusory nature of theatre, whilst also confirming its ability to merge fact and fantasy.

It revolves around maids and sisters, Solange and Claire, who escape their lives of crushing servitude, by obsessively acting out the murder of their mistress.

As the girls' desire to escape escalates, their fantasy grows stronger and more sustained, submerging the maids in a world they have created but can't quite control.

Nomads of Bazar's production hits a nicely spooky note and the opening encounter between the two trapped sisters is bizarre, scary and a bit sexy too.

The two sisters prowl the near-empty stage, testing out their roles as maid and servant, oppressor and oppressed, delighting in the danger, power and anger that their role-playing releases.

But as the plot twists out of control the acting gets confused.

Emilija Ellen's Solange becomes a bit too theatrical - even for this elaborate and stylistic play - and her performance becomes stagey, rigid and much less frightening.

It begins to feel like too much of a game.

Irena Grgona is the only one to hold onto reality throughout her performance and it is her palpable fear - the actress squirms in terror and her screams wriggle right through you - that makes the play dangerous again.

Claire Spence's Madame bursts onto the stage with energy and excess, but her performance is pitched too high and she not nearly foreboding or icy enough to justify her maids' lust for revenge.

Still, this play asks a huge amount from its actors and while the performances could be darker and more defined, this company still has a good stab at bringing Genet's haunting thriller to life.