Hannah Wigglesworth and Julia Van Dam as Solange and Claire, in The Maids. Photo by Kyle Tobiasson and PoppyRose Media.

A setting of sparse hygienic extravagance is created in the basement auditorium, with a shiny-white floor, forty pairs of stiletto-heels in every imaginable colour and finish lined up against the wall, chairs that state membership in some school of architecture, and huge bunches of long-stemmed flowers surrounding the structurally-necessary concrete pillars of the room. A young woman (Hannah Wigglesworth) in modern house-cleaning garb (spotless white sneakers, baggy black jeans, yellow latex gloves, a uniform smock with pockets) rushes in with a caddy of cleaning supplies, and begins scrubbing surfaces urgently.

This is the beginning of Jean Genet’s The Maids, translated by prolific English playwright Martin Crimp, as currently performed by independent production company Putrid Brat, in the basement-level space in the Pendennis Building on Jasper just east of 97 Street. It is the kind of play where lyrical text and menacing elliptical delivery leave some matters unexplained. Some become clear later, and some … do not.

A key point is the two maids (Wigglesworth and Julia Van Dam) playing a game or enacting a “ceremony” in which one of them plays the mistress, abusing and abasing the other. The other embraces the dynamic with enthusiastic consent and a certain eroticism which becomes more uncomfortable as one recalls that the two maids are sisters.

After some of this roleplay, in which we also learn more about the mistress’s life circumstances, a timer goes off and the maids rush to restore the room and their own costumes, to be perfectly prepared for the mistress’s return. They didn’t have time to reach the climax of their “game”, which would involve killing the mistress. And it’s not clear whether that’s an actual plan, or not.

Our expectations of the mistress have been formed from the way the young women have embodied her in the game – and when Alex Dawkins stalks in wearing a drapey fur coat and a figure-hugging dress, she confirms my impression. Her character is powerful and mercurial, dangerous and compelling. She is completely caught up in her own problems and her own drama, depending on her maids as mirrors but not recognizing them as individuals. Musing on how her lover’s incarceration will affect her life, she tries on a tired-of-the-world pose, “I’m giving up clothes! I’m an old woman!” but allows her maids to coax her out of it.

The harsh lighting and occasional ambient sound in the low-ceilinged room, the stalking and pacing, the mistress shouting and the maids rolling their eyes behind her back while hinting at strangulation or poisoning, create and build a menacing atmosphere. The ambiguity between reality and shared imaginings contributes some uncertainty but doesn’t lessen the menace. The ending is not entirely clear and not entirely satisfying, but left me musing on power dynamics in a stratified society, as I checked my phone for messages from work.

The play is directed by U of A professor David Kennedy. Design elements are credited to Beyata Hackborn (costume), Even Gilchrist (scenic design), and Nick Kourtides (sound), with artistic contributions from other people familiar on the local scene. Performances continue tonight (Sunday evening) and Tuesday through Sunday evenings next week, with tickets available through Showpass.