Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
The Suit and Ingoma, Royal Opera House London
Ballet Black's South African double-bill demonstrates why they're one of the most exciting dance companies around
Ballet The Suit
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
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A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
DANCED with verve and passion, classical ballet’s emotive power is joined with the joyous vivacity of popular dance to convey the ambiance of South Africa’s township life in this marvellous double bill from Ballet Black.
It starts with The Suit, based on the famous story by Can Themba and set in Sophiatown, where Philemon (Jose Alves) takes cruel revenge on his seemingly loving and attentive wife Matilda (Sayaka Ichikawa) when he catches her in flagrante.
She must constantly treat her lover’s discarded suit as their honoured guest and, relentlessly humiliated by the suit’s presence in their domestic and social life and distraught by Philemon’s stubborn rebuttals of her entreaties for forgiveness, she hangs herself.
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