THE SUIT
Young Vic Theatre, London SE1
Opened 23 May, 2012
***

“Peter Brook’s previous productions at the Young Vic include […] Le Costume,” notes the publicity for this production, somewhat evasively. For (which played here in 2001) and The Suit are one and the same: adapted from Can Themba’s short story from 1950s South Africa, staged (then in French, now in English) with three men and one woman. This time, however, the four black actors (British, French and American as well as South African) are augmented by three white musicians (on piano, accordion / guitar and muted trumpet) who play more or less constantly. The original portion of Frank Krawczyk’s score is quietly cool-jazzy; also included are a handful of songs, some at least of which are extant: I cannot vouch for most of the African-language numbers, but “Strange Fruit” and Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” are conspicuous.
    
Most of the numbers are sung in a sweetly strong voice by actress Nonhlanhla Kheswa, who is otherwise the least at home with Brook’s unfussy storytelling style of staging. Jared McNeill as the narrator and a clutch of supporting characters, and William Nadylam as the protagonist, are much more at ease, almost but not quite bantering with us, giving the impression that they are at once part of our number and part of the story. Themba tells how a man in the township of Sophiatown, outside Johannesburg, punishes his adulterous wife by ostentatiously treating her lover's empty suit as an honoured guest in their house; Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne’s adaptation plays out over 75 minutes.
    
I do not remember noticing in 2001 how palpably Themba’s story is hampered by being so much a product of its time. The depredations of township life, from pickpocketing to murder by police, are mentioned on a number of occasions, but there is no sense of linkage between his victimhood in outside life and the psychological oppression which Philemon imposes domestically on his wife Matilda. More, there is an implicit undercurrent of sexism: Matilda’s suffering is shown sympathetically, but Brook and Estienne cannot dispel the impression that the predominant note at the end of the story is that of Philemon’s bereavement rather than of Matilda’s death. In quality and atmosphere, this production is par for the course for 21st-century Brook: fluent and assured, but uncompelling.

Written for the Financial Times.

Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.

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