Cate Blanchett Heads to the New York Stage with U.S. Premiere of The Maids

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is gearing up for the U.S. premiere of Jean Genet’s The Maids. Directed by Benedict Andrews and translated by Andrews and Andrew Upton, The Sydney Theater Company production will transfer as part of the 2014 Lincoln Center Festival. Joining Blanchett in the psychological drama are French film star Isabelle Huppert and Elizabeth Denicki. The Maids is inspired by a French murder case about two servants with plans for their employer. The play will have a dozen performances over the course of the festival running from July 7 through August 16.

The festival will also feature productions including a joint appearance by the Bolshoi Ballet, Opera, Orchestra, and Chorus, performing the Don Quixote, Swan Lake and Spartacus ballets. There will also be opera in concert of Rimsky-Korsakov The Tsar's Bride and Japan’s leading Kabuki company, Heisei Nakamura-za, returns with the new Kabuki drama Kaidan Chibusa No Enoki.

Blanchett is an Oscar winner for The Aviator, and a nominee for Elizabeth, Notes on a Scandal, I’m Not There and Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Her many other film credits include Blue Jasmine, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Her recent notable stage roles include Uncle Vanya, Big and Small, A Streetcar Named Desire and Hedda Gabler. Blanchett and her husband Upton are currently artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company.