There are genres, which I try to avoid, and there are those, with which I can be chased away from the world. If I think about opera, then I am sure that it worth following the text either from a book, or reading a projected subtitle, so far, the smart glasses have not been there to be able to become part of the performance, however I would enjoy this fusion very much. The jazz is the other one, which pushes the cacophony to the limit, so in the long run I cannot handle it. Here a question rises, why I went to the Open-Air Theatre of Városmajor to watch the performance of The Suit, which was performed as the part of the competition programme of Szemle Plusz.

The co-production of METTRIN and Maladype has been directed by Zoltán Balázs. He uses the adaptation by Mothobi Mutloatse from the Can Themba’s classical short story, according to Léna Megyeri’s translation.

Philemon (Barna Kelemen Bányai) is the loving husband and the good working man with bitter humour in the Sophiatown part of Johannesburg. His wife once worked as a singer, but since their marriage she has been the bored housewife. One they the husband caught Matilda (Csilla Radnay) in their home, but instead of getting divorced or quarrelling with her, he has punished the woman in a grotesque way. He treats the suit (Ferenc Fehér), which her lover has left behind, as an honourable guest and he wants his wife to do the same. The days go on, the situation becomes more and more grotesque, when they take the piece of clothes for a walk or during the common dinner, Matilda has to feed it. When the wife finds a hobby for herself, there is a gleam of hope that the torturing days of their everyday life would be finished.

All of these are happening in a vacuum. Because of the South African background of The Suit, behind the personal conflict a much bigger social reality can be found, because Sophiatown was the multi-coloured and culturally vibrant part of the town of Johannesburg, which was eliminated violently during the apartheid movement, its inhabitants were relocated. During a story, in which Philemon has deprived Matilda gradually from her freedom, it is hard not to recognise the parallels of the mechanism of power. The oppression rarely starts with one single prohibition. The rules are changing slowly, the control is normalized, the borders are pushed on gradually, up until the victim herself has become the part of the formed system. The relationship between Philemon and Matilda has become the miniature model of it, in which the home has become the society, the husband has become the ruler.

Human nature is rather strange. There are stereotypes, which have been written down in connection with our behaviour, but the individual and the psyche can overwrite it well from time to time. It is said sometimes that there are people with Latin and Southern temperament, who snap up, who are loud, who are intense, who express their feelings spectacularly and do not take care of their surroundings, while they also chase away the observers too. The private sphere does not really exist to them, they privately define what concerns them, but the community has got used to it, so inside the nationalities it does not cause any disruption. Anyway, others use consciously the shyness of the given nationalities, and they succeed by embarrassing the others, because they try to escape from the situation and sooner let anyway. But that silent type also exists, which does not do any mess, but uses a calm voice, and rises higher fear in his surroundings. It is a common characteristic anyway, as the aim is to make feel the fact, that something is not good, it is not comfortable to the other one.

In case of cheating the situation is the same, if we catch our partner with her lover, it can raise many kinds of reaction from us, it can be shouting, fighting, jealous invitation for a duel, physical activity, divorce, killing, suicide, lethargy, revenge, the palette is very wide. Anyway there is that type of people, who answers with fatal silence, who goes back, who becomes reserved and keeps distance, but does not let it go anyway. The love and hate can cause an inner conflict and result in the fact that they express possession in connection with their partners, which can turn to be frightening or even abusive one. In case of The Suit it starts with a little strange thing, which turns to be a serious moral terror and then finally to be abusive relationship. This punishment can be seen as educative or even adequate, however, in viewers’ mind appear those kinds of possibilities, that they have already got used to. It can be forgiveness, divorce with quarrels, the war of plates, apology, the blaming of each other, the cheating as a revenge, the showing of dirty things or even physical hurting can be mentioned there, which seems to be ordinary, and sometimes accepted and lawful. Obviously today we handle it differently, the physical punishment does not seem to be adequate form of behaviour, but with time even mental abuse or terror has lost its usual nature.

Philemon of The Suit, in spite of it, becomes the archetype of the oppressive system, as the first grotesque fantasy, the humanisation of the piece of clothes has become complete in reality with Matilda’s dehumanisation. First the nature of punishment can be understood, seemingly the husband chooses another way, he does not shout, quarrel or become aggressive. But as the happenings go on, it gets new interpretation. The violence on its own, as we talk about it nowadays many times, cannot mean just the physical punishment or the restriction of some rights. This manifestation is more about control, but we cannot see the nowadays so fashionable narcistic version, but the form of psychological control and mental abuse instead. It is a harmless grotesque situation, which becomes an everyday routine, from which it is unable to escape. It becomes torture, which is more than a lesson or punishment, and becomes an endless circle, from which they are unable to get out.

The present staging of The Suit can do what only a few people can think, as we can see those kinds of ways of behaviour, which are about the question of sin, atonement, apology, abuse and forgiveness at the same time. We often forget this last one during our present, or we taste the word with negative connotation, disgustedly. It is interesting especially because, we do not think about which is shown in the performance, this way of thinking can poison our own personalities too, and we cannot even recognise, we ourselves have become abusers. From our own points of view, our truth exists, and we do not feel our acting abusive at all, but all of these are just because, we are close to it, we cannot get out of it. When the irreversible happens, it must be too late. It may be, but just may be, that it is good to step back a little and get a view on it all, and do not concentrate on just our own point of view.

Csilla Radnay and Barna Kelemen Bányai’s voices are fantastic, the energy and chemistry can pulse between them during the performance. The set (Zoltán Balázs) is grotesque and practical at the same time, it can show us the surrounding, which it would like to: an elegant circular place that is full of instruments of torture. The costumes (Daniella Sovány) are creative and enviable. The perfection of the music (composer: Adrián Kovács, music director: András Szép) can be ruined by one aspect, and this is the sound system, in case of the not so perfect setting, the understanding of the lyrics can be reduced to zero. This is the only reason why jazz-opera can be problematic (András Szép, Benedek Kárpáti, Szabolcs Dörnyei / Balázs Rodek, Balázs Rabóczki / Zsolt Magda, Tamás Gyányi), as both of them can over dominate the ears, so the fact, that they can be enough on their own, according to the place and the technicians’ abilities both of them can mean a serious drawback too.

Emerald Dragon, Smaragd Sárkány kulturális blogja, 2026

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)