HelloHelen Canada

Jean Genet (1910–1986), the French novelist and playwright who wrote The Maids (Les Bonnes), first performed in Paris in 1947.

Genet did indeed express the idea that female roles should be performed by young men. He wrote:

“If I were to have a play put on in which women had roles, I would demand that these roles be performed by adolescent boys…”

He went further: he wanted a placard beside the stage explicitly telling the audience that the female characters were being played by males.

This idea became particularly associated with The Maids, whose three characters—Claire, Solange and Madame—are all women. Jean-Paul Sartre’s influential analysis of Genet treats the characters as young men performing women, and later productions have frequently used all-male casts.

The artistic reason is especially interesting. Genet did not simply want men to impersonate women realistically. He wanted the audience to remain conscious that it was watching an artificial theatrical construction. In The Maids, Claire and Solange are already constantly playing roles, exchanging identities and imitating Madame. Male actors playing women add yet another layer: a man playing a woman who is herself playing another woman. That deliberate tension between reality, appearance, identity and performance is central to Genet’s theatre.
Here’s a short, expressive Instagram version:

The genius of Roman Viktyuk. ✨

With The Maids, he didn’t simply stage Jean Genet ,he created an entirely new theatrical universe. Men playing women, women playing roles within roles… identity, desire, power and illusion all dissolving into one breathtaking performance.

Viktyuk turned theatre into poetry of movement — provocative, beautiful, sensual and unforgettable.

Viktyuk created magic. 🎭

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