Can Themba’s The Suit resonates 50 years on
Play has audience electrified despite its grim theme based on cheating
What would you do if you were to catch your wife in the act with another man?
Would you, out of anger, beat her to a pulp or send her back to her parents? Perhaps the better way would be to divorce her.
This is the predicament facing Philemon in the play The
Suit, that opened on Wednesday at the Market Theatre.
The piece by late literature icon Can Themba is morbidly damn good tragic story, well directed and well told by a cast of
talented actors. It features the likes of Siyabonga Thwala, Zola Nombona and Lesedi Motladi.
The Suit is a tale of a young couple, Matilda and Philemon, caught up in different struggles of life. Matilda (Zola Nombona), a former singer and dancer, dumps her dream career to marry the most handsome man in Sophiatown, Philemon (Siyabonga Twala) who loves and treats her like a queen.
The fairy tale marriage is rocked by a cheating scandal when Matilda is caught right in the act with ex-boyfriend KK. Instead of dumping or harming her physically, Philemon devises a more grim method of revenge.
As KK had left his suit in a hurry when caught in the act with Matilda, Philemon makes his wife to treat the suit as the guest of the house.
He forces Matilda to prop it up at dinner table, and dish up for it at meal times – just as she would do to a guest. She must carry it along when they go out shopping. The last straw is when Philemon forces Matilda to feed the suit in front of his friends. Matilda could not take the embarrassment anymore and commits suicide.
Despite a depressing storyline, The Suit remains as popular as ever, judging by the standing ovations it gets – decades after it was penned.
Incidentally, the current season of The Suit is is being staged to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Themba’s death. Ironically, he too died a lonely death in exile in Swaziland, mostly believed from excessive drinking. He was 43.
The Suit is on at the Market until May 28.