in his play, The Maids. It is the element of fake, of sham, of
artificiality, that attracts Genet in the theatre. He has turned
dramatist because the falsehood of the stage is the most mani-
fest and fascinating of all. Perhaps nowhere has he lied more
brazenly than in The Maids.

Two maids both love and hate their mistress. They have
denounced her lover to the police by means of anonymous
letters. Upon learning that he is to be released for lack of
proof, they realize that their betrayal will be discovered, and
they try to murder Madame. They fail and want to kill them.
selves. Finally, one of them takes her life, and the other, left
alone and drunk with glory, tries, by the pomp of her post-
urings and language, to be equal to the magnificent destiny
that awaits her.

Let us indicate at once a first whirligig. Genet says in Our
Lady of the Flowers: "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, and I would bring this to the
attention of the spectators by means of a placard which would
remain nailed to the right or left of the sets during the entire
performance." ¹ One might be tempted to explain this de-
mand by Genet's taste for young boys. Nevertheless, this is
not the essential reason. The truth of the matter is that Genet
wishes from the very start to strike at the root of the apparent.
No doubt an actress can play Solange, but what might be
called the "de-realizing" would not be radical, since there

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