Elections and Erections: A Chronicle of Fear and Fun

Elections and Erections: A Chronicle of Fear and Fun

Written and performed by Pieter-Dirk Uys

Performances through May 4 at A.R.T.'s Zero Arrow Club, Cambridge

Box Office 617-547-8300 or www.amrep.org

The People's Republic of Cambridge rolls out the welcome mat for Pieter-Dirk Uys and his new show Elections and Erections: A Chronicle of Fear and Fun at the A.R.T.'s Zero Arrow Club. Yet even in this liberal, academic bastion the laughs are bracketed by lulls of discomfort as the artist and his alter egos attack the most well known politicians and policies of his native South Africa, neighboring Zimbabwe, and the lame duck administration of President George W. Bush.

Putting aside political correctness, Uys uses his rapier wit to skewer the leaders of the African National Congress who underscore the "mock" in the democracy that replaced the system of Apartheid in 1994, and to illustrate some frightening similarities between our two countries vis-à-vis freedom of speech. He is passionate about his comedy and his politics, employing the former as a "weapon of mass distraction" in the fight against fear. Uys maintains "to laugh at fear can only make that fear less fearful," and he has been bringing his message to the theatre world for four decades.

Uys opens and closes the show in drag and portrays about ten characters (primarily women), changing costumes and applying makeup onstage. His colorful smocks and headdresses invoke the likes of Winnie Mandela, Grace Mugabe, and Desmond Tutu, and even Mother Teresa makes an appearance as a heavenly telephone receptionist. However, his real star turn is as the outlandish, fictional Evita Bezuidenhout, the "most famous white woman in South Africa," who is vying to become the country's first female president. She carries on both sides of a conversation with a ventriloquist's dummy representing the current leader, President Thabo Mbeki (who will not acknowledge publicly that HIV leads to AIDS), which is both chilling and amusing, and takes at least partial credit for the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

Much of Uys's program is ripped from the pages of current events, including comments about disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and the recently deceased Charlton Heston. Interspersed with the political sketches, the actor shares some poignant personal anecdotes about life as a gay man during Apartheid. It is these stories that humanize the situation and make the fear and nationalized racism of those years palpable. When he recounts the details of his own life, it is even more affecting than listening to the tales of his other voices.

While it is clear from laughter and polite applause that the audience appreciates what Uys is giving from the stage, it is unclear why they also seem to be discomfited by some of his material. The title Elections and Erections refers to the two things that were illegal when Uys was a young man growing up in Cape Town. He does not shy away from raw language in discussing both the political and the sexual, but it is my sense that the lack of political correctness is much more difficult to hear than any of the prurient accounts. Also, the collective degree of knowledge about the events in South Africa may be sorely lacking so that ignorance of what goes on there puts limits on how funny the references are to an American audience. While the production is in town, the A.R.T. is sponsoring a number of special events with Pieter-Dirk Uys to enhance the theatregoing experience (see the website for a complete listing).

As long as there are governments and politicians, there will be a wealth of material for comedians and satirists to ply their craft. What sets the Elections and Erections cabaret apart from the run-of-the-mill is the combined wit, intelligence, and experience of the plucky Uys. His monologues are crisp, his costumes are vibrant, and he isn't afraid to take a poke at anybody, no matter how powerful, revered, or reviled. Moreover, he's rather likeable himself and makes a connection with the audience. The show may be about Uys's journey and evolution as a white South African, but it reveals plenty about the United States in the midst of our own political turmoil.

 

 

 

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