webmaster

<  previous   next  >

Uys, in spades

– Bruce Dennill, The Citizen, 9 February 2009

Pieter-Dirk Uys has made a point of using his talents to help audiences conquer fear in their lives.

“It has taken my whole life to conquer my own fears,” he admits, “as I was so indoctrinated when I was young.

“The first thing was the fear of God — why must I fear someone who is supposed to love me?

“But I’m not scared — at all — of politics, or people who threaten me, or death itself. I think it’ll be quite interesting crossing that threshold.”

Uys reckons fear has a lot to do with the current economic climate.

“People are frightened into playing along.

“They get told: ‘These are the things you must spend money on, even if you don’t need them.’

“Opinions die when there’s fear,” Uys adds. “So democracy dies. Elections give us a chance to flex our muscles.”

Uys, or Evita Bezuidenhout, brings his/her show Elections & Erections back to the Joburg Theatre in March, and says it will be half about people and politics, with the other half a Q&A session with Evita, dealing with election issues.

“People don’t understand what they’re voting for,” he says.

“Parties say they’re fighting poverty. What does that mean? Are they going around beating up poor people? And election lists!

“I’m not going to throw a wedding where I don’t know everyone on the list, so why would I vote for a stranger? Do some research — if he doesn’t turn up on Google he shouldn’t be running,” Uys says.

“I’m lucky in that I’m not there as a political representative. I can just entertain with some extraordinary realities, made more surreal by being in a theatre.

Uys always keeps his shows up to date. “I may pick up an issue in the papers,” he says, “but then only be on stage in two weeks’ time.

“Will that issue have legs? Sometimes I end up penning lyrics to songs 48 hours before the show.”

How does that hold up with his perfectionist streak? “I have a ‘work in progress’ slot at my theatre in Darling.

I just say: ‘Bring the cat and the coffee and tell me what you think.’ And those watching will tell me straight if something does or doesn’t work.

“I’m never unprepared on stage, although I’m not necessarily sure where the windows for improvisation might be — I get there after three or four shows,” Uys says.

Another aspect of staying up to date is Uys’s awareness of modern marketing techniques.

“Oh, yes,” he says. “I’m working on Facebook and YouTube and UpYours and InMine and all of them. Theatre is the temple on the hill, but not everyone wants to climb all the way up there.

“In the old days I had to go to Sasolburg and Vereeniging and everywhere — to bite the elephant in his arse in his own kraal, but now things are different.”

<  previous   next  >

top