Pieter-Dirk Uys presents his usual mix of clever impersonations and brilliant repartee. (Review by Caroline Smart)“Adapt or die” was said by Prime Minister P W Botha, when he announced his proposed revisions of apartheid policies as a prelude to the 1981 General Election which was still for whites only.
This prompted Pieter-Dirk Uys to produce Adapt or Dye, his onslaught against the politically-correct racist regime. It started off at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, going on to tour South Africa, before performing overseas. A recording of a Market Theatre performance in 1982 formed the first local video. It was introduced through hire-shops and, as Uys quips “those few outlets that had the courage to make the comedy available.”
Some 30 years later, as politics in South Africa appear to loom dangerously close to the stifling restrictions of the apartheid era, a spokesperson for the ANC Youth League was heard to suggest that if whites did not like the fact that the youth would take over South Africa, then they could go somewhere else: ‘Adapt or fly!’
The resultant near panic among many democratically-minded citizens prompted Pieter-Dirk Uys to put his agile mind into top gear and the result is Adapt or Fly, currently on what he describes as a “World Tour of South Africa”. He maintains that when history repeats itself, it can take tragedy and turn it into farce. Uys loves his country with a passion and has done more to educate his thousands of followers in the complexities of the country’s politics than any television or newspaper coverage.
In his usual mix of clever impersonations and brilliant repartee – often sailing fearlessly close to the wind - Pieter-Dirk Uys charts the political process of South Africa from the early days of Dr D F Malan, the first prime minister of the apartheid regime, to the present day where Julius Malema is determinedly forcing his way into power.
The stage is bare apart from a screen covered in newspaper cuttings and a cardboard box across which are displayed both the old and the new South African flag. Uys’s only props are a series of red crates which contain the disguises as he moves through the numerous familiar characters which he has lampooned for so many years - “The Bad, the Bold and the Bastards”, as he calls them! My favourite is still the hunched, bulldog-faced Pik Botha who sidesteps any responsibility for any political action taken anywhere at any time!
The show contains snippets of Pieter-Dirk Uys’s own history including the fact that he performed his first one-man show in Durban in the 1980’s at Saira Essa’s Upstairs Theatre. We also get to meet Mrs Petersen from the Cape Flats and the indomitable Nowell Fine (as she is today and way back in 1979) and her unseen maid, Dora. Just when you think that he might commit the unheard-of offence and leave out his famous alter-ego, Evita Bezuidenhout, up she pops to carry us forward past the 2014 elections … and a possible new leader.
Adapt or Fly runs at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre until March 18, before it moves to Johannesburg, Cape Town and on to the 2012 Grahamstown National Arts Festival. Performances nightly at 20h00 (Sundays at 15h00) Tickets R140 booked at Computicket or 0861 915 8000 or at www.computicket.com – Caroline Smart
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