It's not the cross-dressing that makes Loose Canon's production of The Maids different: casting men as the vengeful sisters was apparently Jean Genet's preference. But it is questionable that he would have approved of the laughter generated by Jason Byrne's staging, in which this existentialist case study sometimes veers towards bedroom farce.
In this expletive-strewn version, Madame (Deirdre Roycroft) is a cocaine-snuffling socialite, while Solange (Phil Kingston) and her sister Claire (Karl Quinn) flounce around her bedroom with cropped hair and denim mini-skirts, playing out their rituals of submission and dominance with an ironic shrug. On Wayne Jordan's set, red petals on a white bedspread create an atmosphere laden with artifice and religious symbolism. Spotlights on stage suggest a film-shoot, with Claire camping up the scenes in front of a full-length mirror.
To pursue the role-playing theme to the full, the mistress should also arguably have been played by a man, but Roycroft gives a performance as good as any drag queen's. She brings an endearing wit to the role that makes it hard to believe her maids would really want to murder her.
Only with Solange's soliloquoy, as she rehearses her imaginary trial speech, do we get a sense of true menace. It hints at an approach to the play that lifts some of its faded philosophical weight, but doesn't lose sight of its drama.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 003531 8819613.
