by Alicia Dhyana House
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William Nadylam & Nonhlanhla Kheswa-Réveil in The Suit. Photo: Johan Persson |
Peter Brook is a theatrical prophet. For the past seven decades the contributions of this visionary British director have traversed theater, film, and literary worlds. Brook has spent a lifetime exploring his craft and the world in pursuit of stories eager to be told. Now in his 80s, Brook continues to extend the boundaries of theater by stripping down drama to its universal human essentials. His latest production, The Suit, hailed by The Daily Telegraph as “unforgettable” and “theatre as it should be,” arrives at the BAM Harvey Theater from Jan 17 to Feb 2.
Brook’s respect for Themba and justice is fervent. “The most talented man writing short stories on the level of Chekhov couldn’t be published because he was black,” said the director. Frustrated with apartheid, Themba left Johannesburg in the early 1960s. The writer was declared a statutory communist in 1966 and his works were banned in South Africa. A few years later, in his mid-40s, he died from alcoholism. His best pieces were posthumously collected in The Will to Die (1972).
In the 1990s, in newly liberated South Africa, Brook first came across Themba’s story with his longtime collaborator, Marie-Hélène Estienne. It was Barney Simon and Mothobi Mutloatse of the Johannesburg’s Market Theatre who originally adapted The Suit into a play. Brook remembered how moved he and Estienne were by the piece. “It was an essential human story that needed to be told and we knew at once we had to do our own adaptation and staging,” he said. The duo adapted the play in French a decade ago and their production traveled the world.
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William Nadylam & Nonhlanhla Kheswa-Réveil in The Suit. Photo: Johan Persson |
Now Brook and Estienne are giving The Suit a new life by returning to the story in its original English language and collaborating with composer Franck Krawczyk. When asked about revisiting the work at this particular moment in time, the director responded, “Nothing in the theater stands still—some themes just wear out, while others long to live again. There are so many brutal regimes at this very moment, from Syria and throughout the world. Can Themba is a tragic hero of our times.”
Brook shared a recent visit he had with his good friend, former BAM President Harvey Lichtenstein. The two reminisced about the past. “It was with A Midsummer Night’s Dream where it all started. We took a fundamental step and decided the people located closest to the actors must pay the least.” Brook’s passion crackled over the phone.
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