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Thought-provoking
PHOTO: V. GANESAN
METAPHORICAL PLAY
The Suit”, like the short story it was adapted from, is a think-piece. It surveys a concept that has been at the heart of literature for centuries: cuckoldry. It deals with the issue in much the same way as a 17th Century Heywood tragedy would, and still has the same impact. It dissects and magnifies relationships and explores the threads that bind two people together.
The idea is powerful; sadly, the production itself was not. It got off to a disappointing start, sounding incredibly contrived in its depiction of the early morning rituals of a couple.
The dialogues, which I can only assume were supposed to sound playful and winning, sounded trite and fake. The three actors had very little chemistry together and could not keep the momentum going.
The play used several interesting visuals and symbolic techniques: the actors often performed at different levels in the same vertical line and made very interesting use of the sets and the props. The play questioned the aesthetic principle of art that conventional performance tends to follow by showing unsettling visual images such as the lead actor stuffing his face, spitting out his food and finally throwing up, a bathing sequence and several changing sequences. It flitted between realistic and stylised movement, which was a bit unnerving, and made inconsistent use of the fourth wall.
Overall, the play was certainly thought-provoking, but the credit goes to Can Themba’s concept and plot and the director’s delineation of the dramatic action, not to its actors or to the script itself and its dialogues.
MANASI SUBRAMANIAM
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