The Suit: Exclusive Adelaide Season

Adelaide has been treated to exclusive theatrical events many times in the past, often as part of the city’s fine Adelaide Festival. While there’s not a festival in sight in October, the city will again be blessed with an Adelaide-only theatre experience when iconic British Director Peter Brook brings his moving production The Suit to Australia as part of its world tour.

Several of Peter Brook’s works have been presented in Adelaide since 1980, but The Suit will be the first English-language production of his to visit the city since the memorable The Mahabharata was staged at the Adelaide Festival twenty-six years ago.

Regarded widely as the most influential theatre director in the world over the past fifty years, Brook is delighted to be returning to Adelaide and said recently, “There has been a wonderful connection between my work and Adelaide that dates back thirty-four years.”

The Suit is to be presented by the State Theatre Company of South Australia and Adina Apartments Hotels, in association with Arts Projects Australia and the Adelaide Festival Centre.

State Theatre Company CEO Rob Brookman said that ever since working with Peter Brook’s Centre for International Theatre Creations on their tours to the Adelaide Festival it has been a long-held dream to bring another work by this “greatest of theatre directors” to Adelaide. Brookman said, “It is an absolute coup to be bringing this work, so beautifully crafted and infused with humanity, to Adelaide as part of our 2014 season.”

A Peter Brook, Marie-Helene Estienne, Franck Krawczyk/Theatre des Bouffes du Nord production, The Suit is based on the novel The Suit by Can Themba, Mothobi Mutloatse and Barney Simon. The book was banned in South Africa during the apartheid period.

The Suit is set in the dusty heat of a 1950’s South African township. It is a story of revenge and pitiless punishment, in which the discarded suit of a lover becomes a constant reminder of infidelity. The production integrates a band of musicians into the action, providing a deeply emotional sensory background to this moving fable.

Cast includes Nonhlanhla Kheswa, William Nadylam and Ery Nzaramba.

Peter Brook’s production of the play will also have played in London, Tokyo, Rome, New York and Shanghai amongst thirty-seven cities in nineteen countries before concluding in June next year.

To date, seasons have inevitably sold out wherever The Suit has been staged and the show has received rave reviews, including this from The New York Times: “This wonderful production…brims with gentle effervescence and musicality. By the time you leave the theatre, you may feel you’ve experienced devastation by enchantment. The sadness will linger, but so will an elating sense of this show’s enfolding magic.”

For those from other Australian states who wish to attend The Suit, special SA Tourism packages are available and include travel, accommodation at the Adina Treasury, ticket, program and drinks.

Peter Brook’sThe Suit exposes what happens in a marriage when a shared wound is not allowed to heal, while its setting in apartheid-era South Africa promises to add memorable depth to the story and the theatre experience.

Lesley Reed

WHEN: October 1-12, 2014, 8pm.

WHERE: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.

BOOKINGS: Visit http:// www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/shows

Group bookings/ captioned seating: call or visit BASS.

Interstate packages: www.statetheatrecompany.com.au/thesuit-specialoffer or call Virgin Australia Holidays on 13 15 16 to book.

Photographer: Johan Persson