Pieter-Dirk Uys is back in Melville for new show at Montecasino
His latest one-man show is breathtaking in its brilliance as audiences are transported to times gone by through vivid storytelling by a master of his craft.
Pieter-Dirk Uys is a beloved, incredibly amusing, and politically astute actor known across the length and breadth of South Africa.
He is currently back in his old stomping ground, Melville, while he performs his latest show, The Echo of a Noise, at Montecasino.
Uys delivers an astonishing 90-minute performance on an empty stage with only a chair and spotlight on the otherwise pitch-black stage.
The play follows his extraordinary life as a young boy influenced first by his father Hannes and mother Helga Bassel, and later a myriad of others who would shape him into the comic genius he would become.
As the play unfolds, the audience is transported to times gone by through laughter, pause, and reflection as he reveals in exquisite detail his memoirs.
Uys used his talents from the moment he stepped onto the stage in the 70s to critique and expose the ‘obscene and absurd’ laws of Apartheid.
“As with so many of his performances, he takes his audiences into his confidence, breaks the rules, and crosses boundaries,” says Bridget van Oerle of The BUZ Factor.
He travelled to Melville from the Cape in 1978 in an old blue Volkswagen with his worldly belongings to perform at the newly opened Market Theatre.
“My great friend and fellow actor Rika Sennett let me rent a room in her home for R70 a month on 10th Avenue.”
He would later buy a home on Fifth Avenue which he only sold in 1996.
He moved permanently back to the Cape after his father, ‘Pa’ died in 1989. “From that moment, Melville has always been my home away from home in Johannesburg.”
“I now live in a gorgeous small town in the Cape called Darling, darling.”
He was last in Johannesburg in 2019, before the lockdown, and reflected on the Melville he sees today.
“Seventh Street looks like a movie set that has not been used in years. It is still absolutely wonderful and I know it will bounce back as the world recovers from the devastation of the pandemic and how it decimated economies.”
“I treasure Melville and it has always had ups and downs. I hope people realise though ahead of the elections next year that communities are the jewel in the crown of democracy. We must fight for what we want, and for what is good, and hold those in power accountable. Whomever you vote for.”
His website www.pdu.co.za has free access to all of his one-man scrips for use by drama students or others who wish to enjoy them.
Echo of a noise runs at the Pieter Toerien, Montecasino Main Theatre until May 14.
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