Archived Reviews of Adapt or Fly
REVIEWS OF ADAPT OR FLY in DURBAN — MARCH 2012
Move over PW, here’s Juju
and he’s just as scary
– Shelley Seid, Sunday Times, 1 April, 2012
The title of Pieter-Dirk Uys’s new show, Adapt or Fly, is a play on the title of his scathing, now iconic, piece of satire, Adapt or Dye, that took South Africa by storm 30 years ago. “Adapt or die” was the ominous warning given by South Africa’s former state president PW Botha as we moved into one of the most repressive eras of our apartheid history.
Adapt or Fly echoes the past; it is, he says, the message behind the ANC Youth League’s suggestion that if whites don’t like its policies, they can leave the country. In other words, they must adapt or fly to other lands.
This is history repeating itself, says Uys, as he takes the audience on a theatrical journey juxtaposing his personal biography with the political developments that gave it context.
Of course, this allows Pieter-Dirk Uys fans (especially those over-40 liberals) the chance to reminisce over the bad ol’ days, when he was an angry young man, a brilliant mimic who held the moral high ground, and so bitingly funny that even the butt of his jokes — a fair number of National Party cabinet ministers — were die-hard fans.
So expect to see the crowd-pleasers; all the Bothas, as well as a Verwoerd and a Vorster, and be prepared for that frisson of excitement that still creeps up your spine when he shakes that finger or hunches his shoulders.
For good measure, we also get other familiar, almost neighbourhood characters.
Mrs Peterson, who wouldn’t think she is racist but embarrasses with her outbursts of one stereotype after another, and, in two separate incantations, the ageing kugel Nowell Fine.
As usual, Uys develops his characters and tells his stories with barely a prop. A couple of newspaper articles pinned up behind him, the proverbial crates from which a hat or a pair of spectacles will transform him, in a split second, into the instantly recognisable characters of then and now.
He even goes so far as to deconstruct aspects of his oeuvre. He speaks about his sets (a box was easy to pick up and run with if the security branch tried to prevent a show); his choice of characters; his use of humour.
It’s an engaging show, mostly I suspect, because he is a national treasure, and because his work, his characterisations and his lines are familiar and comforting.
In its day Adapt or Dye shook our world. It was current, incisive and delivered with a razor-sharp and original wit by a righteously angry, talented man who understood how to deliver satire generously coated in humour.
Fly has a gut-wrenching opening and a disturbing, utterly brilliant closing that is made more harrowing by its use — and abuse — of our most beloved Tannie Evita. Sandwiched between is an older, gentler and nostalgic ramble through the past — and it’s well worth the engagement. But it’s the flashes of the old PDU — the parts where you feel punched and tickled at the same time — that I’d have loved to have had more of.
Adapt or Fly: Pieter-Dirk Uys
Where & when: The Fringe @ Joburg Theatre, April 3-29; Hexagon Theatre, Pietermaritzburg, June 4-9; Baxter Theatre, Cape Town, June 11-30
Uys’s brilliant take on the South African political scene
– Estelle Sinkins, The Witness, 14 March 2012
ON a stage bare of everything except a screen plastered with newspapers, two boxes and the old and new South African flags, Pieter-Dirk Uys kicks off his latest show in the guise of one Adolf Hitler who has popped up from hell to see what’s happening in South Africa.
Uys likens the German führer to Julius Malema and reminds the audience that, like JuJu, Hilter too was once on the lunatic fringe and that simply by forming his own party, appealing to the poorest in society and promising them everything, he came to power.
The message: it’s not safe to write off Malema, even if he’s been expelled from the African National Congress.
Adapt or Fly is being staged 30 years after Uys debuted his one-man show, Adapt or Die, the title of which was sparked by the then Prime Minister P. W. Botha’s words “adapt or die”, which he said while proposing revisions of apartheid policies before the 1981 general election.
The new show’s title, meanwhile, was inspired by a spokesperson for the ANC Youth League who said that if whites did not like the fact that the youth would take over South Africa, they could “adapt or fly”.
In Adapt or Die, Uys used his show to tackle the apartheid regime and its architects, and during the evening some of those old faces — the Bad, the Bold and the Bastards, as Uys calls them — made an appearance, including B. J. Vorster, Hendrik Verwoerd, P. W. Botha and F. W. de Klerk.
The satirist also shares anecdotes of what it was like to perform his shows during apartheid. It wasn’t easy to say the things Uys said and made him, at one point, the most banned playwright in South Africa. The satirist also revealed how his trademark boxes came into being — they were quick to carry if he needed to get away fast — and he reminded the audience of Helen Suzman, the lone voice of protest in Parliament during the apartheid years, and a woman who “drove the Broederbond insane” because she was like a “Chihuahua on crack” with her constant refrain of “free Mandela, get rid of apartheid”. Suzman also told him that if he wanted to impersonate the National Party leaders on stage, he had to see them in action in Parliament. It was, he said, a little surreal when he did.
Other characters who pop up include a coloured police officer, whose grandmother was turned out of her beautiful Cape Town home and forcibly moved to the Cape Flats, Pik Botha, who maintains that he was not here, but over there (in foreign lands), during apartheid and so did not know what was happening, Piet Koornhof, who went from apartheid spin doctor in chief to a man happily married to a coloured woman, South Africa’s former black presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma, Cape Flats resident Mrs Petersen, who is campaigning for the DA and kugel liberal, Nowell Fine (circa 2012 and the eighties).
He also allows his irrepressible alter ego, Evita Bezuidenhout, to make an appearance, this time as the chairwoman of the Media Tribunal.
A dapt or Fly makes it clear that Uys is worried that history is in danger of repeating itself.
This is especially true of the Protection of State Information Bill, which he says could impact heavily on freedom of speech.
God forbid that happens, because we need Uys’s biting political commentary and witty satire to help keep those in power on the straight and narrow.
Adapt or Fly is without question one of Uys’s best shows, so whatever you do, don’t miss it.
• Adapt or Fly is at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre until Sunday. Performances are Monday to Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are R140 at Computicket.
***** Funny flight into belly of beast
– Latoya Newman, Tonight, 13 March 2012
No stranger to South Africans, Pieter-Dirk Uys has been a theatrical activist for many years and his latest offering, Adapt or Fly, is another reason why he should be voted the real people’s president.
Through his alter egos Evita Bezuidenhout, Kidi Amin, Pik Botha, Nowell Fine, Mrs Petersen, the old Krokodil, Madiba and more, Uys uses his satirical and comedic strengths to take the audience on a journey through SA’s political evolution — the highs, the lows, the good, the bad, the successes and particularly the socio-political failures — with no holds barred.
Narrating his journey through comedy character sketches, Uys guides the audience through his experiences as white South African and later as a master satirist who wasn’t too popular with the governing powers.
Journeying through apartheid and post-democratic SA, the show is an alternative historical offering, a piece that draws subtle parallels at times between past and present, and, most importantly, wittily highlights the issues of those who are always on the losing end of politics — the people.
From black communities who suffered the atrocities of apartheid, to white activists who were exiled, only to return and find their Security Branch torturers let off with a slap on the wrist (just two examples from the show), this show is a well-rounded offering.
With subject matter that could easily be offensive, I feel Uys has taken care to ensure that rather than be an in-your-face offensive rant, Adapt or Fly is an enlightening, thought-provoking offering.
Touching on everything from the fathers of apartheid to the success (or is that failure?) of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to politicians and their shenanigans, to the absurdities of apartheid race classification laws and the Juju generation of leaders and more — the show balances all this weightiness with a highly entertaining performance by Uys and his hilarious alter egos.
Adapt or Fly with Pieter-Dirk Uys
Pieter-Dirk Uys presents his usual mix of clever impersonations and brilliant repartee
– Caroline Smart, artSMart, 8 March 2012
“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
ADAPT OR FLY: OR SIMPLY VREK
Pieter Dirk Uys — the inimitable satirist
It’s a good thirty years since maestro activist chameleon supreme Pieter Dirk Uys started his biting satirical vignettes depicting the scariest of our nation builders. Politicians may come and go, but he will endure forever. Viva Uys!
– Gisele Turner, Going Places, 8 March 2012
Last night I dreamt I met Pieter Dirk Uys. He appeared to me in a beam of light, dressed in a sombre black suit; but I couldn’t see his face. He was reading The New Age and when he lowered the newspaper to talk to me, an ugly frisson ran through my whole body. Uys was possessed by Adolf Hitler! He’d escaped from hell for a few moments and, as he said, there was a smell of sulphur in the air. It was sort of funny. It was seriously scary too.
I turned my face into the pillow and hoped the image would go away; it did and suddenly there was a charming, friendly, warm and twinkly man with a seriously receding hairline and a lopsided smile recalling some personal history and reminding me that I had seen him at the Upstairs Theatre in Alice Street in 1981. I could remember the opening lines of ‘Adapt or Dye’ … and there they were again. As though I was an old friend Uys confided in me, confessed to me and regaled me with stories. I was just starting to relax, when he opened this cupboard and out fell a clutch of skeletons, and a nasty history lesson came spewing from the hollows of their mouths.
He rattled dem bones, I can tell you! Then he fleshed them out and it was even worse. The finger shook, the mouth licked dry lips, the eyes popped, the cheeks bulged and puffed, the ears flapped and the eyebrows had a life of their own. He just went on and on, pulling all these horrid dead people out of a box and making them re-appear for our entertainment. It was a nightmare. And all around I heard gales of laughter, the ‘sniggles’ and nervous titters and my throat had closed up and I watched those monstrous short-cuts of our shameful history and my heart thumped harder in my chest.
Uys was relentless. He put a cap on his head with the peak at the back and starting talking like a Cape Coloured; down to the sucking of the gap in his teeth. He told me such a sad story about his granny’s house and a stinkwood table and six chairs that I wanted to weep; then he turned the cap around and put on a pair of police sunglasses and it was still him! That nice coloured oke! But now he was a traitor; and I wondered: who is not prey to corruption in this damn country?
I don’t even want to tell you what he did next. Dressed up like a Muslim woman with such a sharp gossipy tongue; my, she just went for it, hey, nobody escaped. I started thinking that I couldn’t really take much more when he did this kindly old kugel with a really bad wig and I was just feeling ‘ach, shame’ for her, when he transformed, in front of my very eyes, into this same person 30 years earlier and she was such a heartless self-absorbed bee-eye-tee-sea-aitch I didn’t care about her knee replacement any more.
Some dreams just go on and on, nê? I started to get sleepy so I missed some of Evita’s appearance. I just remember her sashaying up to me in a purple tea gown, her eyes as glittery as her earrings; she was going on about the 2014 elections and I blanked out briefly. But when she came back with that ugly little Malema baby in her arms I was wide awake. I started thinking about where it would be good to live when I woke up… where the heck I could fly to? That’s the question I wanted to ask Uys: “Where to, bru? All very well — Adapt or Fly. But, where to?”
Then the people were standing up and clapping and I found my voice and I shouted out “whoo-whoo!” and showed him my appreciation for his art, his humanity, his courage and his smart brain and I was glad to go out into the cool air, hoof it up the hill, drive home and climb into my own bed.
‘Adapt or Fly’ plays at UKZN’s Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre (Howard College Campus) until 18 March with nightly performances at 8pm (Tues to Sat) and Sunday matineès at 3pm. Tickets R140 booked at Computicket or 0861 915 8000.
ADAPT OR DYE
– Brian Roodt, artSMart, 11 March 2012
“Adapt or Dye” — “Adapt or Fly” — Pieter Dirk Uys is back after a (too)-long absence in Durban and the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.
The lights go up on an almost bare stage save for a screen covered in newspaper pages, a cardboard box draped with the old and new SA flags all of which hints at what’s to come.
Uys stands in front of the screen his upper body hidden behind a newspaper. He moves forward lowering the newspaper as he does to reveal Adolf Hitler. So begins an unusual but amusing (is it nervous laughter?) history lesson which chillingly shows history repeating itself.
Hitler, the Third Reich, dictatorship, lebensraum, chosen volk, the banishment of the ‘not-chosen’ to ghettos, genocide.
Skip forward to Uys’s childhood — the son of a ‘mixed’ marriage (conservative Afrikaaner father and European Jewish mother) growing up in the company of the family ‘ooms’ — a progression of NP leaders and their increasingly repressive laws starting with the first apartheid Prime Minister of South Africa, Dr. DF Malan, and onwards, all of whom Uys characterises in his inimitable satiric style made all the more funny by his use of rhyming doggerel to introduce each character.
And they’re all there, the Uys characters we’ve all come to know and love — BJ Vorster; finger-wagging, lip-licking PW, Pik the other Botha and Piet Koornhof who ended up in a mixed marriage of his own. Uys at his lovable best.
It’s after interval and the move into democracy that Uys become a little more unsure of himself and his characters — FW, Madiba, Mothlanthe (fortunately for Uys he wasn’t around for long), Zuma and, of course JuJu who is also referenced in the first half of the show. Uys copes by using characters he’s much more familiar and comfortable with — an aged and the younger Nowell Fine and of course Tannie Evita.
The lesson remains stark. It happened under Hitler, it happened under apartheid, could it be happening yet again as Uys skips forward to the elections of 2014 and the threat of JuJu politics?
Pieter Dirk Uys is moving on but he remains ever relevant. Adapt or Dye shone a light on the horrors of apartheid. Adapt or Fly reminds those of us who were around at the time and serves to shine a light into a dark past for those who were born into democracy. Lest we forget.
Adapt or Fly runs until March 18. Performances nightly at 20h00 (Sundays at 15h00) Tickets R140 through Computicket 0861 915 8000 or at www.computicket.com
Young or older, Uys deserves to be seen and heard.