“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.