Archived Reviews of Adapt or Fly
REVIEWS OF ADAPT OR FLY in JOHANNESBURG — APRIL 2012
Taking mickey out of politicians
Most South Africans are bound to enjoy ‘Adapt or Fly
– Edward Tsumele, The Sowetan, 11 April 2012
LEADING South African satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys had the audiences in stitches at the Johannesburg Theatre with his new show, Adapt or Fly, over the Easter holidays.
His jokes made people laugh, but also think.
For example, Uys said that during the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, former South African politician, Pik Botha insisted he had never ever supported apartheid.
“The longest serving South African foreign affairs minister asked, how could he have supported apartheid when, in fact, he was hardly in the country because he was always travelling to foreign lands for diplomatic missions,” Uys joked.
His witty, barbed-wire sharp humour kept digging deep into current local leaders’ buffoonery too.
“I never run out of scripts because the politicians write them for me. However, when it came to former president Nelson Mandela, it was a tough time for me because how do you find fault with a man who has the qualities of a saint, an almost perfect individual?” Uys asked.
He made people laugh when he imitated the former president’s manner of speaking, though he seemed to struggle to get the famous accent right.
“Mandela’s accent is right here on this part of my throat,” he pointed to his throat, then got the accent right.
He tore into politicians from the past as well as the current ones.
Adapt or Fly is a humorous journey into the sometimes dark alleys of South Africa’s political journey, from apartheid right through to the present.
And, of course, there are also the squabbles within the ruling African National Congress.
The people Uys makes fun of in Adapt or Fly include apartheid politicians such as DF Malan, JG Strijdom, HF Verwoerd, BJ Vorster, PW Botha and FW de Klerk, as well as ANC presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and the current president of the country and the ANC, Jacob Zuma.
Uys’ satire included events right up to the present.
The comedian also has opinions on Julius Malema and his problems with the ANC leadership.
The audience was kept in stitches throughout the performance because Uys is a master at telling jokes, even the ones that not everyone, and especially politicians, like.
That is probably the reason why Uys, hard-hitting as he has always been, has managed to keep South Africans laughing for many decades. He is just too clever for the subjects of his satire as well as those steeped in rigid political ideologies as he tears them apart and systematically reassembles them in his satirical works.
Adapt or Fly is not for the fainthearted, though, nor is it for those who have no sense of humour because some of the jokes are highly sensitive and could upset some people.
Adapt or Fly is currently on at the Johannesburg Theatre in Braamfontein.
I would recommend the show to anyone who is even mildly interested in the politics and the politicians of South Africa.
Uys’ take on the country’s political commentary is delivered in a very humorous and clever way and I have no doubt that most South Africans are bound to enjoy Adapt or Fly.
**** Uys’s keen eye sweeps over SA
– Kgomotsho Moncho, The Post, 17 April 2012
Pieter-Dirk Uys is so good at highlighting the poignant in his satire that he allows you to laugh at your fears, doubts, sadness and even the underlying anger at where this country has been and the state of politics today.
It’s because of his wit, his eye on the SA politics ball and his faith in this country, that he’s a necessary voice and social commentator to this day.
His Adapt or Fly comes 30 years after the premier of his groundbreaking and controversial one man show, Adapt or Dye, inspired by PW Botha’s infamous words “adapt or die”. And as you walk into the Fringe, a DVD of the play on screen takes you back.
The new title was also given to him by a politician, this time a spokesperson of the ANCYL. And when Uys makes statements like “The ANC is trying so hard to be like the NP”, “Hypocrisy is the Vaseline of political intercourse,” and “Apartheid will never come back in the same name,” it’s valid and thought-provoking stuff.
What makes the show interesting is that Uys is telling his own story juxtaposed with the voices of his different characters and alter egos including Mrs Evita Bezuidenhout, Pik Botha, Piet Koornhof, Nowell Fine, Mrs Pietersen from the Cape Flats, a former security policeman now in Iraq, Madiba and Kgalema Motlanthe. He injects soul into it with theatrics reminiscent of a Shakespearean clown.
He poignantly starts the show with a posthumous Hitler impersonation and there’s a powerful message that stings in that scene.
He tells his story touching on everything from his relation to the architects of apartheid, the TRC, SA’s presidents, the absurdities of the apartheid laws to politicians and their shenanigans and Malema’s political influence.
He was critical of the NP in the apartheid years and he is critical of the ANC in the 18 years of its democratic rule and he draws interesting and debatable parallels between then and now.
He attracts a lot of his peers who have lived trough the apartheid era with him. But he is also blatantly targeting the youth. He stresses towards the end that “Freedoms are still a reality, but they can so easily be replaced by laws that pretend to protect.”
It’s weighty issues balanced by the entertaining and gripping humour that only Pieter Dirk Uys can deliver. And he’s very optimistic and positive about the future of this country.
The bad, the bold and the bastards, then and now
– Moira de Swardt, Artslink, 10 April 2012
An Adapt or Dye video trailer is looping in the foyer of The Fringe, Joburg Theatre. Pieter-Dirk Uys (PDU) looks so young. I sigh. We were all thirty years younger in 1982 when I saw the “must see show of the year”, Adapt or Dye, at The Market Theatre. Some of us haven’t willingly missed a PDU production ever in the years that followed.
Adapt or Fly is an all new production which features a selection of our most controversial politicians from Adolf Hitler who gives political advice to Juju. We have a retrospective of apartheid Prime Ministers, Presidents of the old and new regimes and a look at some of the more amusing ministers who made up some of the stock characters of previous productions. Round about 1994 the timeline got mixed up a bit and I was uncertain as to whether PDU had a bad moment with tangled lines or whether he was a little confused as to the order of events at that time. Probably just tangled lines, after all, many of us acquired most of our political knowledge in his shows.
After interval the characters that we know and love (Anna Pietersen, Nowell Fine and Evita herself) appear, and apart from one little punchline, the material is again all new. It is still being written by politicians, and it is still scary stuff, although we were all able to laugh a little at finding the morning’s news about Juju’s latest punishment. The dangers of the ‘secrecy bill’ feature clearly. This Protection of Information legislation is going to come into being. Evita promised us she’d keep her eyes on the situation. Juju, however, amidst much rueful laughter, had the last word.
Look out for the “Brechtian” (cheap) set and props. Read the headlines in the newspapers behind PDU, but do it before the show or during interval, because during the performance you won’t have time.
I enjoy PDU’s South African satire and admire the talent and creative wit of the man who brings it to us. I salute the artist who was not quiet about the political wrongs in this country thirty years ago, and the artist who is not silent about the political wrongs today. I am especially grateful to PDU who allows me, and all my fellow South Africans, to feel patriotic pride in and intense love for South Africa while never allowing us to be complacent about what we have achieved, nor allowing us to relax our vigilance over those who should be guarding our interests.
Wisdom and wordplay
Satirist laureate investigates others and celebrates self.
– Sibusiso Mkwanazi, The Citizen, 15 April 2012
Pieter-Dirk Uys is a wise man and most of his productions, the books he’s penned — and just about anything he involves himself in (including his latest one-man show, Adapt Or Fly) — is testament to this.
The show is a politically incorrect collection of jibes, criticism and compliments for some South African leaders, stretching as far back as Pik Botha and FW de Klerk, right up to Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.
Uys humorously highlights some of the pitfalls that these men have suffered, and and the results of these mistakes. Corruption, greed, and a terrible sense of fashion are exposed in typical Uys style, complete with a good dose of introspection, as he also shows the role the citizens of South Africa continue to play.
Going back to Uys’s intelligence: all he needs to create a wonderfully engaging and relevant piece are a few crates filled with puppets and props such as a fake moustache, glasses and a few hats.
He also uses his facial expressions unbelievably well, and is aided by his use of posture. It is amazing just how quickly the audience picked up on the various characters on stage, just by seeing a hunched back or a wagging finger.
To tie the loose ends between the end of the apartheid government and the “differently corrupt” current leadership, the production also doubles up as a theatrical autobiography of Uys’s career, as the most famous export from the sleepy town of Darling.
The audience has to always be on their toes, because just as they feel comfortable laughing at an impersonation of Hitler or Zuma with a shower head, Adapt Or Fly releases a stinging comment that refers to them – but never in such a way as to alienate them.
Watching Adapt Or Fly means never knowing for sure what will come your way.
It might be a political comment you disagree with or a funny jibe that not everyone appreciates, but overall this is a necessary show that – perhaps, one day – our leaders will listen to and change their ways accordingly.?
Thirty years and counting with Pieter-Dirk Uys
– Jennifer de Klerk, Artslink, 9 April 2012
One man, some newspaper headlines, several crates and 30 years of history — it’s enough when you’re Pieter-Dirk Uys.
He was just 3 when apartheid arrived — so he tells us — and he had some intimate views of our leading Nat politicians in the years that followed, mostly from the choir stalls of the local church.
Aided by his trusty crates of props, he runs through them, 30 seconds a shot, Strydom, Verwoerd, PW and all the crew, starting with one a bit before his time, but whose attitudes reverberate chillingly — Adolf Hitler.
It doesn’t take much to pull them off, he has obviously had plenty of practice — a hat, glasses, a moustache, a facial expression, a change of voice and there they are in all their (infamous) glory.
Interspersed with the snapshots are Uys’s comments on his long and (perhaps infamous) career. Certainly he has probably been banned more often than any other performer, probably because he kept popping back. After all, he is a white Afrikaner (with a bit of Jew, Coloured and other bits of our rainbow nation).
Above all, as he says proudly, he is a South African (he tried a few years in the UK to see if he could be English, but it didn’t work).
He treats us to several longer vignettes, poignant, even chilling. The Cape Coloured is an easy and telling one — again plenty of observation and practice. He has it captured. The bite comes in a horribly funny and satirical tirade from one of apartheid’s torturers coming across a former victim in 1992.
Yes the new order dawns.
It’s not that easy to snapshot the next era of politicians, but he manages it to a degree. The colour changes, but not much else — Mandela (capture the voice), Motlanthe (the beard), Zuma (the grin).
Malema features — how can he not. There is still plenty of material. Luckily Parliament never took out copyright. The ANCYL supplied the latest title — Adapt or Fly.
One of his older creations, the Sandton kugel Nowell Fine refused to Fly. We see her at Toronto airport returning to Sea Point from a class reunion in Canada (everybody else is in Canada stocking up on the botox).
A flashback to 1985 and Nowell in all her kugel glory, in preparation for that ultimate creation, Evita Bezuidenhout. You can’t have a show without Tannie Evita, this time in green, gold and black, heading the Media Tribunal under the Secrecy Act. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The parallels and echoes run through the show….
We’re frightened now, he says, more frightened than we have been for some time. Hence the need for humour, the great distraction.
Laughter there is, plenty of it, rueful, nostalgic, nervous perhaps.
The future is certain, he says, it’s only the past that’s unpredictable. Think about it.
Pieter-Dirk Uys flies high again
– Peter Feldman, Artslink, 4 April 2012
In a rapidly changing South Africa, Pieter-Dirk Uys remains a master exponent in the art of satire.
He slickly blends the old with the new in a sublime display of artistry, something from which the younger generation of satirists can learn. I vividly recall his stint at the Market Theatre so many years ago when he launched “Adapt or Dye,” one of his many groundbreaking assaults on the Nationalist regime, and how he managed to craftily weave the various characters and the hot topics of the day into the fabric of his show.
A chilling introduction to his new show “Adapt or Fly” has Uys in the eerie guise of Adolf Hitler who materialises from behind a newspaper and implies a comparison between the Nazi dictator and Julius Malema.
Little has changed in the Pieter-Dirk Uys armoury over the decades. He still has that acute eye, that wonderful gift for word play and that amazing talent for getting beneath the skin of a personality. With a quick change of costume, a wig, make-up, glasses and loads of attitude he transforms into key members of the apartheid regime, Dr Verwoerd, BJ Vorster, PW Botha, Dr Piet Koornhof and FW de Klerk come to life on the stage. His Mandela makes a brief appearance in an appropriately coloured shirt, with the actor manfully mastering the former President’s vocal delivery.
His other characters, such as Anna Pietersen, the Malay lady who reminisces about her past life in a big house, and Sgt Swanepoel, the former apartheid interrogator who loved his work, are spot on creations who dispense the essence of their own little world in which they inhabit.
Uys cleverly takes his audience through his own theatrical life and the colourful personalities to whom he gave birth over the years. There is Nowell Fine, with whom we renew acquaintances now as an elderly widow. She is returning to South Africa after having flown to Toronto to surprise her grandchildren and attend a class reunion of former liberals who have emigrated.
We are taken back in time to meet the same person, but a much younger version, living her “kugel” life in Cape Town in the 80s. Her pearls of wisdom will certainly resonate with today’s generation. Uys then skilfully morphs into one of his iconic creations, Tannie Evita.
The stage is devoid of scenery, apart from a few cardboard boxes and plastic crates in which he keeps all his props. The backdrop consists of a montage of newspaper front pages. He tells his audience that they will never find Phantom of the Opera on his stage, and if he ever had two chandeliers they would probably be hanging from each ear.
In an era when so many new, roughly-hewn comedians are coming to the fore, it’s important to still recognise a true master, one who is trained in theatre arts and who uses these techniques to captivate his audience.