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Uys advert gets hot response

– Tonight, 3 July  2003

Satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys's "think before you f***" ads in a Grahamstown newspaper have got conservative festinos hot under the collar.

One, according to reports, has promised to panelbeat Uys's face should he see him.

Uys's response?

"I thought 'Great — the message is finally hitting home'."

Uys was in Grahamstown presenting his hard-hitting, satirical Auditioning Angels, about Aids, orphans, bureaucracy and an often uncaring government and people.

The production, which is directed by Blaise Kock and which will run in Cape Town at the Theatre on the Bay from August 12 to 23, is Uys's first play in a decade.

Uys said he was presenting a story as opposed to a punchline. Hard-hitting, the play is not without its lighter moments. It is set in a dilapidated hospital room with new South Africans and orphaned Aids babies and a TV set which has a life of its own.

As with his four full-page ads in Grahamstown's daily festival newspaper, Cue, Uys said the play was intended "to urge people to think".

He is happy the younger festinos are taking to the message.

"The under-30s as a group really embrace it (the message). It is their future. The over-50s say 'Why should I be sitting through this'. I say 'You've got a grandchild, darling. Sit through it. Sit through it'."

Auditioning Angels has had a strong run here and Uys clearly has made his mark at the festival, which ends on Saturday night.

"I've had a great time. I've never been here as a writer before. I'm here to clarify the story."

Earlier this week his alter-ego, Evita Bezuidenhout, tried to outdo him by placing an ad in Cue caressing a tall body part alongside a caption that reads: "The future is in your hands."

To his silly detractors, Uys says: "Get a life! This is not 1943."

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