Ain’t Genet

A few Sundays ago, I was sitting in the Mark Taper Forum, waiting in rapt anticipation for the start of the second one-act play of the evening, Jean Genet’s “The Maids.”

After about 20 seconds, I wanted to run screaming from the theater! Someone had the gall to take Genet’s play, a scintillating montage of sensuality, mystery, black humor and meta-theatricality, and turn it into the cheapest kind of tacky, Los Angeles, sitcom mush.

Instead of the script as written , the lines were changed, with corny references to Spago, Ma Maison, game shows, etc.

Instead of the two quirky maids and their bizarre relationship with “Madame,” I saw instead two actresses playing Chicano maids of “La Senora,” a jittery, aging Beverly Hills goofball. (Why, even if the director decided to go ahead with this god-awful idea, wouldn’t he hire real Mexican-American actresses?)

The most appalling aspect of this whole hideous theater experience was that even though at least half the lines were changed, the play was still called Genet’s “The Maids.”

What’s next for the Taper . . . “The Cosby Show” version of “King Lear”?

JAMES C. SCHENDEL

Los Angeles