Here's to 80 Years of the Incredible Pieter-Dirk Uys

Photo Credit: Stefan Hurter

A legend turns 80 this month, and the Artscape is celebrating with two of his great works.

Cape Town (04 September 2025) – Pieter-Dirk Uys has always said that humour is a way of facing fear. For the last six decades, he’s stood for it. He has lobbed laughter into uncomfortable truths and dared us to think.

This September, the South African satirist, playwright, performer and proud Darling local turns 80. And in true Uys fashion, he’s not retiring quietly, he’s being celebrated in the spotlight.

From 10 to 20 September, the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town, in partnership with the Suidoosterfees arts festival, will honour Uys’s milestone birthday with an exceptional double bill of his work.

Uys, who was born in 1945, grew up in a world where speaking out was entirely dangerous, and satire could get you banned. He was not silenced, he leaned in and created characters like Evita Bezuidenhout (who, by the way, turns 90 this year!) that poked fun at politics and prejudices.

Over the years, his voice became impossible to ignore. Uys took the issues of the day and turned them into theatre that made you laugh and think.

Apartheid. AIDS awareness. Censorship. Democracy. He has showed up, dressed up, and spoke up.

He’s been around the world with his talent. Won awards everywhere from Berlin to New York. Published novels, TV shows, cookbooks, and even created a museum-meets-satire playground called Evita se Perron in Darling.

Now, the Mother City’s audiences have the rare chance to enjoy his work brought to life.

First up is No Space on Long Street, directed by Basil Appollis and starring the ever-brilliant Terence Bridgett. This one-man show takes audiences back to the Space Theatre era of the ’70s and ’80s, a time when art and resistance danced in the same breath. It’s a whirlwind of character, sass, and nostalgia packaged in a love letter to Long Street and its people.

Then there’s African Times, directed by Thokozile Ntshinga. The political play with pulse follows cabinet minister Dr MZ Nkosi and his daughter Karabo as they return from a controversial trip to Beijing, only to find their home and beliefs shifting beneath their feet. It’s sharp, current, and exactly the kind of conversation Uys would spark now.

His golden years haven’t slowed him down even in the slightest. Uys still writes, still performs, and still makes us question the way things are, all with that raised eyebrow and knowing grin we’ve come to love.

Catch the Pieter-Dirk Uys birthday double bill from 10–20 September 2025 at Artscape Theatre, Cape Town.