The Suit review, Young Vic

The Suit is an exquisite and painful study of betrayal within marriage. In the midst of South African small town squalor, Philemon and Matilda find constant pleasure in each other. He wakes vigourous and vibrant; one look at his wife's face is sufficient fuel to face each day of hardship. When, one morning, he returns to find Matilda in bed with her lover - who runs off leaving his suit on the chair - the turmoil inside the house starts to mirror the oppression outside.

Jacket and thigh

In an extraordinary punishment, Philemon makes his wife acknowledge the suit as a person. It sits on a clothes rail. At mealtimes it is given the third chair at the table and fed. To stop the poison of betrayal souring their lives, Matilda finds new outlets for her energies. She joins a women's group and starts to sing. But as her capacity for joy from simple pleasures increases, her husband's dies. He takes to the shebeens, unable to forgive.

What shines through this deceptively simple production - built by Peter Brook, Marie-Helene Estienne and Franck Krawczyk after a story by the exiled South African writer, Can Themba - is the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. Humour and music - the three piece band is terrific - sustain a community that cannot enter the white churches outside, and will soon be bussed en masse to a government sanctioned tin-hut township. Without love and trust to bolster them, can Philemon or Matilda survive change? 

In conclusion: Peter Brook directs a deeply moving gem of a show with the three most beautiful leads in London: William Nadylam, Nonhlanhia Kheswa and Jared McNeill. Original, moving and witty, it's a must-see.

References

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