FOREIGN AIDS
Edwin J Bernard reviews Pieter Dirk-Uys' one-man show at Theatre Royal, Brighton, 18 May 2003.
In his one-man, multiple-personality show, Pieter Dirk Uys wryly remarks that his most famous creation, apartheid-yearning Evita Bezuidenhout, has been called South Africa's answer to Dame Edna. "What's the question?" he wonders.
Indeed. Whereas Barry Humphries is all frothy, sexual innuendo, Dirk Uys is primarily scathing, campaigning political satire. '
Foreign AIDS' is a remarkable tour-de-force offering an insight into the complexities (and complexes) that make up South Africa's AIDS experience. (An experience that has reached horrific proportions at this point in time.) One minute Dirk Uys reveals the incompetence and hypocrisy of President Thabo Mbeki's dissident view of HIV: "My mind is made up," he exclaims as Dr Thaboo MacBeki. "Do not confuse me with the facts."
Then there's Evita's scandalous sister, an ex-stripper with HIV who inadvertently married a Nazi and comes to London for her antiretrovirals. "Racism," she muses, "is easier to catch than AIDS."
In between constructing and deconstructing his characters on a bare stage filled with boxes of empty foreign aid bound for SA, Dirk Uys tells achingly funny, and astutely sobering, stories of real-life experiences promoting HIV awareness in his home country.
At the same time he addresses the South African parliament with a condom-covered dildo and describes visits to more than 160 schools with a shocking, but necessarily frank, show about safer sex called 'For Facts' Sake'.
While some have criticised his show for making light of tragedy, Dirk Uys firmly believes that "humour is a great weapon. I aim to make people laugh at their prejudices and confront their fears." Bullseye.
Pieter Dirk Uys should return to the UK next year. For more details contact UK Arts International on 020 7381 4115 or visit: www.evita.co.za/pieter
Labels:
2003,
HIV,
Positive Nation,
theatre
