From the short story by the South-African Can Themba, The Suit, using the adaptation by Mothobi Mutloatse, Zoltán Balázs and Adrián Kovács have created a disturbing jazz-opera, with Csilla Radnay, Barna Kelemen Bányai and Ferenc Fehér’s performances, which give us important experience.

In connection with Zoltán Balázs’s performances the surprise is not a new thing, as he always creates his performances as some kind of individual trials, he is not afraid of making experiments. It is not different in case of The Suit, after its premiere at the end of June in Bánk, his performance can be watched on the Open-Air Stage of Városmajor. As the director has said it, during the introducing conversation before the performance: he is interested in the extremes.

The basic work, the short story was written by the South African Can Themba. The jazz-opera, titled as The Suit, was born with the usage of it, of and Mothobi Mutloatse’s adaptation, the composer of which is Adrián Kovács. The performance has benefitted from this construction, which has many layers, as the layers can intensify each other.

The location of the story of The Suit is Sophiatown, which is one part of the town of Johannesburg, which was ruined by the apartheid movement in the 1950s. The main character of the story is Philemon (Barna Kelemen Bányai), who has been cheated by his wife, Matilda (Csilla Radnay). Meanwhile, the husband has found out a very devious punishment, so that the left suit of the lover (Ferenc Fehér), she has to treat during their everyday life as a presented guest, for example she feeds it, pampers it, practically he closes her together with the ominous suit. The great ingenuity of the performance is that the title giver piece of clothes in this version is performed by a dancer. The idea, which was a weird thing at the beginning, has gradually become an extreme, unbearable abuse.

The set, which consists of stands, which have forms of human spine, is also created by Zoltán Balázs. The orchestra of five members is led by Andrán Szép. First, they seem to be two mismatched musical genres, the opera and the jazz meet in this performance. But fortunately there are not any forced or contrived things in it, we can talk about some kind of new dimension, new quality instead. The language of the performance is English, the libretto has been made also by Zoltán Balázs. (The performance can be watched later in Bánk in the METTRIN Arts Centre, then it will be taken on an international tour.)

Csilla Radnay has proved many times, her presence on stage is extraordinary and she can sing virtuosically, she handles with confident technique the changes of music and genres. Barna Kelemen Bányai is her worthy partner, who as Philemon is a lover and a cruel one at the same time, he is the cunning abuser too. Ferenc Fehér, who performs the suit, can raise the piece of clothes into a vivid character, however, he can be presented in reality, with his movements or some gestures.

They have put into the jazz-opera three original South African songs too, which have had many remakes too: The Lizzy, Lizzy, the Rosie My Girl and the Malaika. The meaning of the latest one is Angel, lovers call each other many times that way in Africa. It is a sad love song. It is about a poor young man, who cannot get married with his “Angel”. Miriam Makeba the South African singer has made this song world famous, and it is well-known with the remake of Boney M and Angélique Kidjo too. I can risk telling, that nobody has managed to sing it with that kind of sensitivity and dramatic power as Csilla Radnay did it in the Városmajor. Meanwhile the two sides of the installation, which form a spine, she has been closed onto herself slowly. The drama, which unfolds slowly, by the end has become cathartic, however it is about nothing else just us, and our innermost, most cherished secrets.

Gyula Balogh, Népszava, 2026

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)