Uys' boeredrama in Darling

Directed by the playwright, it takes the form of a television soap opera of 780 episodes, of which five are presented. The saga of the Van Aarde family is mainly in Afrikaans with some English, but an easily understood universal story of passion, murder, lust, corruption, intrigue and many laughs.

In 1975 Uys and Trix Pienaar did a sketch in the anti-censorship revue Strike Up The Banned at the old Space Theatre in Cape Town. In it Trix wore a beret and sloppy cardigan, knitting away while Uys' character wore dungarees and an attitude. The whole thing took place in a familiar Springbok Radio studio. It was a serial called Die van Aardes van Grootoor and involved the whole drama, snot en trane as presented by Kux toiletseep and dramatically introduced by the most famous theme music, still associated with the even more famous (and real) radio serial, Die Du Plooys van Soetmelksvlei. Then, in 1977, Dawie Malan, Chris Galloway and Bill Curry formed the nucleus of an experimental theatre group called Fringe and Die Van Aaardes van Grootoor was performed at the Baxter and thereafter, in 1978, it opened at the Market Theatre where it ran for 18 months and was directed by Malan. Most Afrikaans actors in Johannesburg took part in that season at one stage or another, such as Magda Beukes, Antoinette Kellerman, Chris Galloway, Bill Curry, Marthinus Basson, Nomsa Nene, Eon de Vos, Elize Cawood, Lizz Meiring, Casper de Vries and Pieter-Dirk Uys himself, who stood in for the leading lady one night when she was felled by flu!

The cast

The Perron cast features Jo-Anne Delport as Aia/Madame, Sari Vlotman as Dolla, Ella du Plessis as Mimi/Brenda, Frits van Ryneveld as John Firestone/Tertius; Omnia Grobler as Ouma/Elana and Owen Britz as Fanie/Evert. They are all from the Darling community and are part of the ongoing Perron Drama Project, which has already presented a production of Uys' Karnaval, the playlet Dink Net Aan Darling, Darling for the 2009 Voorkamerfest and the Wax-and-Wine cabaret evenings.

Die Van Aardes van Grootoor will run at Evita se Perron from 6 December 2009 to 7 January 2010. Performances areon Fridays at 7pm and Sundays at 5pm. Tickets cost R100 per person and for booking and info about the menu option, call +27 (0) 22 492 3930 or email .