THE ECHO OF A NOISE. Written and performed by Pieter-Dirk Uys. At Theatre on the Bay, Camps Bay from Tuesday to Saturday until June 18 at 8pm. STEYN DU TOIT reviews.
WHAT remains after everything’’s been said and done? When all the wigs and characters have been packed away, who is the individual left standing alone in the spotlight?
These are some of the questions grappled with when the curtain slides away to reveal Pieter-Dirk Uys at the start of his new solo production, The Echo of a Noise.
Arriving in Cape Town following its debut during last year’s National Arts Festival(NAF) in Grahamstown, the piece marks both the Evita Bezuidenhout collaborator’s 70th birthday, as well as his fifth decade of entertaining, educating and inspiring global audiences.
There are, however, no high heels or glitzy gowns this time around.
In fact, the Divine Mrs E - nor the rest of the pantheon of motley characters Uys has created over the years - do not even make an appearance. Apart from the ghost of PW Botha’s ever-wagging finger that is...
Instead, the viewer is granted a unique opportunity to plug into the stream of consciousness about to flow from this formidable raconteur’s mouth. And what a profound 90-minute journey it turns out to be!
While the production is described as a one-man memoir, don’t expect a chronological relating of key events from Uys’ life and career, nor a tell-all in which juicy industry secrets and romps are revealed (hopefully the latter will follow later).
Presented largely, instead, as a collection of vignettes drawn from his childhood and early career, the result is a touching and intensely personal meditation wrapped in a bright, light-hearted package.
Flavoured with the kind of vivid anecdotes and seemingly effortless quips audiences have come to love about him over the years, by the end of The Echo of a Noise one leaves with rare and privileged insight into Uys’ past.
He is both the echo of the “noise” originally created by his forefathers, grandparents and parents, as well as the one who made the actual noise with his activism and rule-breaking antics during South Africa’s darkest hour.
From growing up in Pinelands to hearing Mozart for the first time to falling in love with Sophia Loren, along the way he also introduces us to those individuals who’ve had a profound impact on the trajectory of his life and early career.
More than anyone else, however, it is/was his relationship with his parents - Hannes Uys and Helga Bassel - that features most prominently and most often. Not only is it something that we can all relate to, but one suspects it is the thing most of us will spend the rest of our lives trying to make sense of.
While the unconditional love he has for Helga and “Oom Hannes”, to this day it is never brought into question, it is the revelation of those related elements that were difficult and/ or tragic to deal with that makes this production cut so much deeper than a mere evening’s worth of entertainment.
These include Uys’ mother’s suicide, his fraught relationship with his father, growing up under a traditional NG church suburban bubble, as well as becoming the poster child for those in charge of censorship during apartheid.
Not only are these details frankly and bravely shared with the viewer, but they will arrive as a beacon of relatability to those who might also still be trying to shake the Calvinistic ‘babalas’ from their system.
Compelling, fighting fit at 70 and with the phrase “Almost Famous” ironically printed on his hoodie, at the end of The Echo of a Noise Uys appears more determined and in charge of his craft than ever before.
“Check your lipstick before you come and talk to me,” Naomi Campbell once barked at an out-of-line aspiring model in a YouTube clip that’s well worth looking up.
For the first time pulling out some rouge (red) from his pocket before defiantly applying it to his lips during the production’s last few seconds, let that be a warning to all of us as he takes on the next 70.
l Book: 0861 915 8000, www.computicket.com, information: www.theatreonthebay.co.za