Presenting 'The Suit' at the Bouffes du Nord (Paris) and soon the Young Vic (London)

A young beautiful bride, a romantic husband and a tiny flat overlooking Sophiatown...We are in South Africa, in the 1950's.

Sophiatown was a legendary black cultural hub in Johannesburg that was destroyed under the apartheid. It was finally rebuilt under the name of Triomf, and in 2006 officially returned to its original name. 

But in the 1940s and 50s, it was a source of hope. Despite the violence and poverty in Black South African neighbourhoods, it was the epicentre of politics, jazz and blues. And it did produce some of South Africa's most famous writers, musicians, politicians and artists.

Among them Daniel Canodoce "Can" Themba (1924-1968), a short-story writer who wrote 'The Suit' in 1960s, inspired by Sophiatown but the text was forbidden for years and only published in South Africa in the 1990s. In 1966, Can Themba had to flee to Swaziland because of the discrimination he was facing and Sophiatown was destroyed...

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In the play Peter Brook is readapting from his first version in French from 1999 ('Le Costume'), Sophiatown comes alive again. Alive through three amazing actors playing wonderfully the main characters and more. Alive through a great rhythm and inspired singing mainly due to the role the South African singer Nonhlanhla Kheswa holds.

She is 'Tilly', Matilda, the main character's wife. At the beginning, Tilly sings while alone in her apartment, bored and left lonely by a hard-working husband, Philemon (William Nadylam). The young worker leaves early every morning in order to catch one of the overcrowded busses of Jo'burg and arrive on time for his demanding White boss.

But one day, he returns home early and finds his beloved wife in bed with another lover... The latter manages to escape, but he leaves behind his suit...

With this play, Peter Brook reaches a peak of freedom, mixing laughter and melancholy, history and private drama, music and theatre, stage and audience above the theatre's traditional boundaries. An absolute delight, the play will be touring Europe the next couple of months, via Madrid, London (at the Young Vic Theatre in May and June) an Luxembourg in 2013. Don't miss it.

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Adaptation, direction and music by Peter Brook, Marie-Hélène Estienne and Franck Krawczyk
Light Philippe Vialatte
Costumes Oria Puppo
Assistant direction Rikki Henry

With Nonhlanhla Kheswa, Jared McNeill, William Nadylam
Musicians Arthur Astier, Raphael Cambouvet, David Dupuis