Brute Face: Every Uys is a joker

27 March 2015 - 02:00 By Yolisa Mkele

If Pieter Dirk-Uys was an animal he would be a chameleon with a multiple personality disorder. For decades he has made South Africans giggle, chortle and squirm with incisive barbs about race, gender and being a South African. Now the sexagenarian is dusting off a lifetime of characters in a show that he promises will democratise theatre.Titled An Audience with Pieter-Dirk Eish, the performance rebels against theatre's dictatorial nature by allowing the audience to choose which of Uys's characters they would like to see take the stage. Those that get the most votes get to grace the stage while the rest remain in their dark corners."Every show is different because people always want a different mix of characters. It's live in a way that few things are these days. Everything seems to come in a tin or a cloud," he said.Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete, Jacob Zuma and Evita Bezuidenhout are among the characters the audience can choose from. But Uys has also included characters that deal with South African history, first-world problems and differing viewpoints."One of my darker characters is based on a friend of mine who was tortured in John Vorster Square. That is always a tough one to start with at shows," he said."Comedy is jokes but humour is not always funny. Sometimes it's based on fear. It's like when someone jumps out at you and shouts 'boo'. Initially you k*k your pants but then you see it's your best friend and you start laughing," he said.Uys is not afraid to startle a few hens."I make fun of everybody, even Jesus and God, because they're the first ones to laugh. If they don't have a sense of humour then we're really in trouble," he said.He added: "I want to offend everybody but not all the time. Offending someone means I'm rattling their cage and making them question things."'An Audience with Pieter-Dirk Eish' will run at Montecasino until April 12. Visit www.computicket.com to book...

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