Not The Maids

Name: Not The Maids
Start: Fri Aug 11 2017 12:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
End: Sun Aug 13 2017 12:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Location: Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre Cultural Activities Hall

Behind a monthly salary of $4310, she is much more...

11–13 Aug 2017

Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre Cultural Activities Hall

1 hour 30 minutes

Creative Team Gallery Directors' Notes

Hong Kong has nearly 350,000 foreign domestic workers. On Sundays you can see them in public squares and parks; a street view unique to this city. These ‘maids’ flew from their homes to work in another home. Each week they work for six days performing household chores, taking care of children and the elderly. For one day a week, they are guitarists, photographers, rugby players… themselves.

‘Maid’, ‘Helper’, ‘Foreign Domestic Worker’… Apart from these names, how much do we really understand ‘them’?

Cast

When I used this pot today, I found that it was mouldy

Michelle Li

Collaborating Actor

There are people who are willing to help.

Russell Terre Aranza

Collaborating Actor

Karen C. Siu

Collaborating Actor

And that Fair Employment Agency you just told me about? Introduce it to me!

Isabella Leung

Collaborating Actor

Creative and Production Team

Directors	Ivor Houlker, Michelle Li
Collaborating Actors	Isabella Leung, Karen C. Siu, Michelle Li, Russell Terre Aranza
Lighting Designer	Lai Bie
Stage Manager	Ray Wong
Promotion Photographer	Ivor Houlker

Special thanks to Pants Theatre Production.

Awards & Recognition

Awards and recognition for shows or achievemenets

Nominated for

Performance of the Year

IATC (HK) Critics Awards 2017

Nominated for

Best Script

10th Hong Kong Theatre Libre (2017-2018)

Nominated for

Best Director

10th Hong Kong Theatre Libre (2017-2018)

Nominated for

Best Performance

10th Hong Kong Theatre Libre (2017-2018)

Gallery

What Critics Say

Quotes from reviews and articles about us and our shows

Directors' Notes

The starting point for the form came from Genet’s text The Maids, whose multiple layers of roleplaying gave us an insight into how to go about putting such a complex topic and a variety of different voices on stage. Thinking of ‘employer,’ ‘domestic worker,’ ‘agent’ etc. as ‘roles’ which are fulfilled by individuals rather than inherent traits of those individuals is an important part of our critical approach to interview texts.

“You really become that person, you put on the uniform and you act the part.” - Guard Interview, Stanford Prison Experiment

This coherence of this approach was reinforced by our reading into the Stanford Prison Experiment as a way of dealing with the question of abuse.

As always with our shows, objects and sound play an important role. In Not The Maids, these follow the pattern of juxtaposing high and low status, kitchen and kitsch. We are particularly inspired by Tadeusz Kantor’s work on bio-objects, and our approach to character begins from this angle.

Our approach has involved simultaneously writing, devising, experimenting and then going back to write again. We realised early on that simply illustrating the stories we heard in our interviews was a waste of theatrical space. We had to find ways of adding layers of meaning that were not simple repetitions of the interview content, but contained our own reception of the stories’ encoded meaning.

We turned to Brecht’s ideas around gestus for guidance, creating tableaux and situations exemplifying social power relationships. These began from our own experiences in research, such as employers providing drinks for us but not the domestic worker in interviews. This also forced us to confront our own roles as interpreters of information, and our privilege/responsibility in disseminating it.

We would like to thanks all our interviewees and their families, also to our collaborators, for the questions they have answered and the questions they have asked.

About the Artists

Learn more about everyone involved in the production