So, what do you actually do?

 I build sandcastles when the tide is out.

That’s what I should say when people ask me: “Pieter-Dirk Uys? What do you actually do?”

I tell them that I write plays and perform in revues. My work is called satirical, but I need it to be entertaining as well, so I’m not the perfect example of a satirist – the taker of no prisoners. I write stories and sometimes they end up on stage in dramatic form.

HAPPY FAMILY, THE FOUR UYSES

Clockwise from top left: 5 July 1956: On the Union-Castle ship Carnarvon Castle seeing Ma off when she went back to Europe for the first time since the war.

In the garden at home (with a cat of course).

In the music room with a serene Pa and the rest not so sure.

In the back garden in front of Pa’s pride and joy, the pink hydrangeas.

1990: Meeting backstage in Hollywood

after my show. (with Sophia Loren).