The Suit

3 APRIL - 5 MAY 2012
FROM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY AT 9PM
MATINÉES SATURDAY AT 3.30PM

We called it « Le Costume », and in French, for years, it travelled the world. So what makes us do a new version, in the original language ?
The answer is quite simple - nothing in the theatre ever stands still. Some themes just wear out, while others mature, change their looks and cry out to be seen again.
It all began in South Africa in the 50s when a brilliant black author, Can Themba, wrote a short story called « The Suit ». « This will make our fortune » he told his wife, but fate decided otherwise. Sophiatown, where he lived was razes to the ground, Can Themba had to leave for Swaziland where he quickly died victim of poverty, sadness, apartheid and drink.
Like all black authors dead or alive his books were banned, and many years went before it was possible to turn it into a play. The first version came into being in Johannesburg at the Market Theatre, it went to London and Peter Brook at once decided we had to stage it for our Paris base, the Bouffes du Nord.
The story gripped the audience. A young man comes home unexpectedly and finds his wife in bed with a stranger, but instead of reacting violently, he hides in the closet. The lover tears out of the house in his underpants, leaving his suit behind him. The husband makes a loghtning decision. He tells his wife that the suit will from now on live with them, day and night. He maintains his pitiless revenge, the constant presence of the suit chews avway the existence of his wife, until in the end, to his shame and remorse, she dies.
Already a tour first rehearsals it seemed natural to bring music into the play and we used recordings of the hauntingly beautiful jazz of the times. Today, in our new version, we feel even more strongly the wish to make of this unique story a unique musical, with live musicians on stage, and scenes partly sung.
New words, new songs, - for Can Themba and « The Suit » a new adventure now begins.
Marie-Helène Estienne et Peter Brook