6 - 18 March 2012
Political Satire

Pieter-Dirk Uys is well remembered for his first one-man show which opened on April Fool’s Day 1981 - ADAPT OR DYE.  ‘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. Uys started his onslaught against the politically-correct racist regime at the Market Theatre, then toured the entire country and overseas with his show.

ADAPT OR DYE was the first local video – a recording of a Market Theatre performance in 1982 - to be introduced through hire-shops and those few outlets that had the courage to make the comedy available. That was its essence: humour. Fighting fear with laughter thirty years ago. 2012 will see Pieter-Dirk Uys close the bracket with a new onslaught against a politically-correct regime with ADAPT OR FLY.

The Rainbow Democracy will be in its eighteenth year. The African National Congress will be gearing up for its crucial congress in Mangaung during the second half of the year. Everything in our country has changed and yet some things seem to be the same old story. Poverty, violence, crime, corruption, media control, confusion and fear were the realities of life during the 1980s. Has history repeated itself in some areas and turned tragedy into farce?

ADAPT OR FLY was also inspired by politics. At the height of the Malema-speak of nationalization of mines and land-grabs of farms which frightened many people into near-panic, 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!’