Pieter-Dirk Uys (; born 28 September 1945) is a South African performer, author, satirist, and social activist. One of his best known roles is as Evita Bezuidenhout, an Afrikaner socialite.

Background and early life

Uys was born in Cape Town on 28 September 1945, to Hannes Uys, a

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

Afrikaner father, and Helga Bassel, a

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

-born Jewish mother. Hannes Uys, a fourth-generation South African of Dutch and Belgian

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

stock, was a musician and organist in his local church. Bassel was a German concert pianist, whom the Nazis expelled from the

Reichsmusikkammer The Reich Chamber of Music (German: ''Reichsmusikkammer'') was a Nazi institution. It promoted "good German music" which was composed by Aryans and seen as consistent with Nazi ideals, while suppressing other, "degenerate" music, which included ato ...

in 1935 as part of their campaign to root out Jewish artists. She later escaped to South Africa and managed to take her grand piano with her, with which she taught her daughter, Tessa Uys (b. 1948), now a concert pianist based in London. Bassel spoke little about her Jewish past to her children. It was only after her suicide that they discovered she was Jewish. Uys and his sister had an NG Kerk upbringing and their mother encouraged them to embrace

Afrikaner culture Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Cas ...

Career

Uys received a B.A. from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

where he began his dramatic career as an actor under the tutelage of Rosalie van der Gught, Mavis Taylor and Robert Mohr, among others. His performances at this time included roles in ''Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs'', ''

The Fantasticks ''The Fantasticks'' is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play ''The Romancers'' (''Les Romanesques'') by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neigh ...

,'' and ''

Once Upon a Mattress ''Once Upon a Mattress'' is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. It opened off-Broadway in May 1959, and then moved to Broadway. The play was writte ...

''. He later went on to study at the London Film School during the early 1970s. It was in one of his student films, an advertisement for milk, that he performed in drag for the first time (as a

milkmaid A milkmaid, milk maid, dairymaid, or dairywoman was a girl or woman who milked cows. She also used the milk to prepare dairy products such as cream, butter, and cheese. Many large houses employed milkmaids instead of having other staff do the wor ...

). He then began a period in his dramatic career as a serious playwright. Several of his plays were performed at the Space Theatre, Cape Town, and his 1979 play ''Paradise is Closing Down'' was performed in London, at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

(co-produced by

William Burdett-Coutts William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett Burdett-Coutts (20 January 1851 – 28 July 1921), born William Lehman Ashmead-Bartlett, was an American-born British Conservative politician and social climber who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1921 ...

), and later produced for Granada Television in 1981. He subsequently switched to performing one-man revues at the height of the

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era. Uys is particularly well known for his character ''Evita Bezuidenhout'' (also known as Tannie Evita, Afrikaans for "Auntie Evita"), a white Afrikaner socialite and self-proclaimed political activist. The character was inspired by Australian comedian

Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries (born 17 February 1934) is an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film pr ...

's character

Dame Edna Everage Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, t ...

. Evita is the former ambassadress of Bapetikosweti – a fictitious

Bantustan A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now ...

or black homeland located outside her home in the affluent, formerly whites-only suburbs of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

. Evita Bezuidenhout is named in honour of

Eva Perón María Eva Duarte de Perón (; ; 7 May 1919 – 26 July 1952), better known as just Eva Perón or by the nickname Evita (), was an Argentine politician, activist, actress, and philanthropist who served as First Lady of Argentina from June 19 ...

. Under Apartheid, Uys used the medium of humour and comedy to criticise and expose the absurdity of the South African government's

racial A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

policies. Much of his work was not censored, indicating a tacit approval of his views by many members of the ruling party, who were not so bold as to openly admit mistakes and criticise the policies themselves. For many years Uys lampooned the South African regime and its leaders, as well as the sometimes hypocritical attitudes of white liberals. One of his characters, a ''kugel'' ( social climbing Jewish woman) once said, "There are two things wrong with South Africa: one's apartheid and the other's black people". This was later erroneously attributed to Uys himself. Following South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994, Uys starred in a TV series, ''Funigalore'', in which Evita interviewed Nelson Mandela and other prominent politicians of the day. In the theatre, Uys/Evita's performances include ''You ANC Nothing Yet''. He and his character are known for their tireless work in the frontline of

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

activism and education. He is currently involved in teaching AIDS awareness to children and education in the use of

condoms A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of inte ...

, travelling to schools all over South Africa to spread the message of safe, responsible sex. Uys also serves on the board of directors for the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, a non-profit organisation founded to provide treatment for and conduct research relating to HIV. Darling1

Uys converted the old, disused railway station at Darling, where he lives, into a cabaret venue called ''Evita se Perron'' (Perron is

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

for ''station platform'') and performs there regularly. During 2004, Pieter-Dirk Uys took part in a Carte Blanche story, dealing with genetics and unlocking the mysteries of race and ethnicity, entitled "So, Where Do We Come From?". Uys discovered that he has

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo ...

n heritage from his mother's side. Uys received the Special Teddy Award 2011 at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

(Berlinale) for his commitment to AIDS education at South African schools and for his on-stage alter ego, Evita Bezuidenhout. An independent jury presents the ''Teddy Award'' to individuals for lifetime achievements for films with

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

(gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) topics.

Awards and honours

*The 2011 TMSA Naledi Lifetime Achiever Award *Special Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) 2011 * Reconciliation Award in 2001 *Mrs Evita Bezuidenhout was awarded the Living Legacy 2000 Award in San Diego *The lifetime achievement award from the Cape Tercentenary Foundation *Doctor honoris causa from **Rhodes University: D.Litt. (Hon.), 1997 **University of Cape Town: D.Litt. for distinguished, socially-responsible creative work in 2003 **University of the Western Cape: D.Ed. (Hon.), 2003 *2018

Hertzog Prize The Hertzog Prize (or Hertzogprys) is an annual award given to Afrikaans writers by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (South African Academy for the Sciences and Art), formerly the South African Academy for Language, Literature a ...

for drama

Books

* ''Farce about Uys : A Legal Assembly in Two Riotous Acts'' (1983) Jonathan Ball and Ad. Donker Publishers * ''Selle ou storie'': A play (1983) Ad. Donker, Johannesburg * ''Paradise Is Closing Down and Other Plays'' (1989) Penguin Books Ltd * ''Funigalore: Evita's Real-Life Adventures in Wonderland'' (1995) The Penguin Group (SA) Pty Ltd * ''The Essential Evita Bezuidenhout'' (1997) David Philip Publishers, Cape Town * ''A Part Hate a Part Love: The Legend of Evita Bezuidenhout'' (1994) Hond, Groenkloof * ''No space on Long Street ; Marshrose'' : two plays (2000) ComPress, Cape Town * ''Trekking to Teema'' (2001) Compress, Cape Town * ''Elections & Erections: A Memoir of Fear and Fun'' (2003) Zebra Press, Cape Town

Films and documentaries

* ''Skating on thin Uys'', a 1985 comedy lampooning P.W. Botha * ''Darling! The Pieter–Dirk Uys Story'', a 2007 documentary by Julian Shaw * ''How to make Rooibos Rusks with Evita Bezuidenhout'', a 2016

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

by SuzelleDIY

References

External links

Pieter-Dirk Uys's homepageEvita's webpage
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uys, Pieterdirk 1945 births Living people Afrikaner Jews South African drag queens South African Jews South African male comedians South African people of German-Jewish descent International Writing Program alumni Afrikaner anti-apartheid activists South African LGBT comedians LGBT Jews University of Cape Town alumni