Theatre N16 28 February – 11 March. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
Tom Stenton’s millennial take on Jean Genet’s The Maids has a lot going for it, especially the committed performances by the cast, but the play left me feeling as if I had just listened to one of Taylor Swift’s songs – too much repetition and a wish that it had been better edited.
Yasmin and Nina have won a competition to meet their idol, Taylor Swift, and the action takes place in their hotel room as they wait for the call from her people to go up and meet her. The girls’ lives in Luton, working in an Amazon fulfilment centre, and sharing a grubby bedsit, are worlds apart from the celebrity lifestyle they crave, so they have developed “the game”. Fuelled by their obsession and social media, the girls have whole situations scripted, taking turns to be Taylor, and her most vital squad member, Nina. The sado-masochism and sexual tension from Genet’s play are diluted here; some of the rituals don’t really add anything to the play, and could have been cut. The blurring of the game with reality, and the girls’ conviction that they have the perfect plan to become Taylor’s only friends is fascinating, and their plotting to sell fake allegations against Calvin Harris is frighteningly believable.
Yasmin’s love-hate obsession with Swift becomes more clear cut as the play progresses, and Isabella Niloufar is outstanding portraying the frustration and inner turmoil, but, even with a ridiculous beanie on her head, always seems slightly too glamorous for her character to be completely believable. Tanya Cubric as Nina gets to camp it up as Taylor in a ratty blonde wig, and makes you giggle as she spouts words of wisdom from Taylor Swift’s interviews and social media accounts, parroted back passionately by Yasmin.
Swifties has a lot to say about the discontent of ordinary people who think they deserve an easy path to celebrity and wealth, and believe that they actual know their idols after being immersed in the constant images on social media. Unfortunately, it all gets a little muddled, with the reveal of the context of the (very long) initial scenes of role play coming a little too late to care. But, with some more work on the script, Swifties can develop into a more rounded, coherent play that will fully engage Swifties and non-Swifties alike.