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NY Theater: “Hilda” is a chilling class view of the rich and their servants

A "liberal" French housewife destroys the life of her maid

By Lucy Komisar

Servant – servitude – slavery. There is, of course, a connection between the three words that French playwright Marie Ndiaye suggests has more to it than etymology. In a stylized, in-your-face drama about class, she presents a wealthy housewife whose sense of entitlement and control over her maid finally destroys the other woman's life. As surrealistically directed by Carey Perloff, the production is chilling and leaves the audience often ill at ease. The play, presented in Paris in 2002, is part of the New York "Act French Festival" of French plays.

Mrs. Lemarchand (Ellen Karas) is so insistent on her good intentions, that you distrust her immediately. She is syrupy sweet and seductive. But doesn't take long for the darkness to show through. Summoning the morose worker Frank (Michael Earle), she discusses his wife Hilda as if she were slave for sale. She ignores his protestations that Hilda is taking care of her children and doesn't want a job.

Every "liberal" assertion is immediately smashed. Servants are politically active these days; Mrs. Lemarchand promises to speak to Hilda as an equal. But she predicts that she will "shirk." She comments ominously that almost all her maids have been prescribed anti-depressants.

She and her class have the information of control. She knows exactly what Frank earns at the lumberyard and what he pays in rent. She reminds him that he doesn't have health insurance or savings. When she forces a debt on him that he can't repay, she remarks that she knows the chief of police. The trap of the powerful tightens around the powerless.

And she is, as she declares repeatedly, a "liberal," a "former radical, a militant." The latter is a description that resonates more in France than in America, where "militants" don't have much place in the establishment intelligentsia. But "liberal" will do in the U.S. very nicely.

Ndiaye goes beyond the understandable class divisions of property and power, turning Mrs. Lemarchand into a woman who can't bare being with her children and whose husband doesn't touch her. She wants Hilda to provide the tenderness she doesn’t give. That's where the story moves toward a vision of slavery: Mrs. Lemarchand doesn't want just maid service, she wants personal psychological attention. Finally, "Who does Hilda belong to?" she asks Frank.

Ellen Karas is mesmerizing as her sweetness morphs into nastiness. Most of the dialogue is delivered by Karas as the rich lady whose lies are silk-coated like marketing. Michael Earle's Frank is an excellent ploy as the surly, diffident, fearful worker. He barely expresses more than anguished protests. Hilda, the non-person, is never seen.

"People like me always win, and people like you always lose," says Mrs. Lemarchand, summing up the political message.

“Hilda.” By Marie Ndiaye. Directed by Carey Perloff. Translated by Erika Rundle. Starring Ellen Karas, Michael Earle and Brandy Burre.

Act French Festival, The American Conservatory Theater and the Studio Theater, 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street. Tue 7pm; Wed-Sat 8pm; Sat 2pm; Sun 3pm, 7pm

Running time: 1:30. $45. (212) 279-4200. Through Dec. 11, 2005.

by Carol Pratt.

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