Pieter-Dirk Uys was on his way to McGregor one fine day in 1995 when he took a wrong turn. He arrived in Darling, ordered a schnitzel at Zum Schatzi and outside the restaurant met Dale Gremels, who was selling a house. She’d seen his show at the Baxter the week before.
“What are you doing in Darling?” she asked.
“The cow is still in the meadow. In the meantime, let me show you the town.”
And so she took him around the village, pointing out the charming Victorian houses nestled in the cosy elbow of the hills.
There’s just one old house we’re trying to sell. Difficult. Empty for years.
She turned a corner and there amid wild elephant grass, shutters askew, stood the most beautiful wreck of an old house that Uys had ever seen. He bought it while still in the car, even after being told that there were snakes under the floorboards! But instinct had never let him down.
Pieter-Dirk Uys left Darling some hours later, having had a wonderful schnitzel and now the owner of a derelict old house. |
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It took six months to renovate and as magic would have it, Darling had all the people to do the job: a young man who specialised in Victorian restoration, a Danish electrician, a wizard-carpenter and a community of artisans who scraped, oiled and gently put the old house together like plastic surgeons.
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Once Pieter-Dirk Uys had moved from Cape Town, Jochi Gremels casually mentioned that the old station building in Arcadia Road was now empty. The station was closed in the 1970s. Since then, various people had used the building for a variety of things, but the gravel expanse next to the railway line stayed dusty and hard on the eyes and feet. It had been derelict for some years, and then became the workshop of that wizard-carpenter, who had decided to move on.
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| When Uys, already settled in his house up the road, was asked if he could use the building as a storeroom to hold off the demolishers, the dormant idea of having his own theatre was rekindled in his imagination. And so, in 1996, it stepped into the pages of the unique and became EVITA SE PERRON. Inspired by the legends of Argentina’s Evita Peron and our own Evita Bezuidenhout, this was the ideal place for a theatre. Besides, the word perron is Afrikaans for station platform! |
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For the first year, activity was centred around the small blik building in its strange colours next to the railway line. We inherited the colour schemes. When the station was derelict and rusted, concerned townsfolk looked in their garages and brought whatever paint they could find. So we proudly display pink, turquoise, blue and white as our international colours. The venue was hired (could it have been R80 a month?) restructured with a small stage and enough space for 12 tables with chairs. The kitchen was squeezed into the small area at the back where the carpenter kept his tools.
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To look at the buildings today, with the two theatres, restaurant and bar, The Darling Trust, Elsie Balt Art Gallery, Museum/Nauseum, Gravy Train Saloon, Station Gallery, Boerassic Park, and the community garden, Tannie se Tuin, one finds it hard to remember that this was once just a rural railway station that served the best meat pies in the Swartland. And that in spite of Evita’s use of the word skattie, the town has always been called Darling.
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“I’ve opened a theatre in Darling, darling.” Pieter-Dirk Uys said to his friends in Cape Town.
“Darling, you’re mad,” they replied.
Yes. Mad is good. It means that no one has thought of it yet. And so Evita Bezuidenhout launched her new legendary monologue on Afrikaner history: Tannie Evita Praat Kaktus.
People from the town came forward to man this outpost of entertainment. Tony Bradshaw ran the booking; Naomi Matlokotsi oversaw the venue; Andrew Brown performed miracles in the closet-now-kitchen, producing the best curry in |
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the Swartland. Daily goods trains rumble by and everything shivers on the walls and shakes on the tables. Guests think it’s just a sound effect, but when they see the approaching diesel monster, which looks as if it will plough into the building, they are thrilled and shocked. The cheek of it all!
As the train clatters by, the driver often waves a greeting to Evita, the most famous white woman in South Africa. After that year of experimentation in 1996, the remainder of the gravel land was purchased, and the building was extended to include a restaurant-cabaret venue. Architect Jakes de Villiers has kept the style of the original station in all of the additions, so people often think that they have all been here since the 19th century. By its tenth year, EVITA SE PERRON could entertain an audience of up to 130 people.
The focus is on weekends, when a variety of shows are presented at lunchtime and in the evening. The main attractions are the various Pieter-Dirk Uys shows and his famous chorus line of political characters, some of whom have been with him since 1980. Of course, Mrs Evita Bezuidenhout is the superstar on the stage. |
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On the far side of the car park, TANNIE SE TUIN has become an integral part of daily life in Darling. Besides the trees and seasonal flowers that flourish under the gift of an old windmill, there is a playground for kiddies centred round the old Land Rover donated by JC van der Westhuizen. Under the trees, no longer forgotten and dusty but lavish with leaves, the community rest on their way back to their homes from the banks, the shops and the bottle store. A faux Renaissance statue of a nude lady (Is dit onse Ma Evita?) has become a good luck touchstone for the many who pass her by: Vryf aan haar tietie en mak ‘n wens!
On the other side of the compound, an eccentric art garden, called BOERASSIC PARK, reflects humour through the display of political icons and symbols (from apartheid signs to a gravy train, led by a smiling Nelson Mandela as the happy engine.) The garden also contains local crafts and artefacts specially made for inclusion in this wonderland of Mama kyk daar! |
The Perron garden was designed by Dr Richard King and is a monument to local plants, shrubs, vet plante and bird life. Petal against plastic, these flowers thrive and grow, some by being watered, whilst others are dusted.
The only real animals that stalk the terrain are the PERRON CATS. As all true theatres need a resident moggie, the first four furries (Marilyn, Moggie, Windgat and Die Koei) arrived within days of re-launching the new additions to the old station. Additions took place amid regular gasps of surprise. Ginger Rogers waddles in from nowhere, invited to be the rough trade and punch bag for the tough-boy cats. He turned out to be a bit of a kittophile and has brought two small kittens into the Perron. Later, Boesman and Two-Kay joined the cabaret. The most recent addition, Elsie, appeared out of the dirt bin aged six weeks.
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Daleen Kruger nurtured her in the cleft of her Rubenesque bosom and to this day, Elsie takes a flying leap onto any passing chest. She confronted a passing train some years back and lost her front leg, but is now obliviously chasing visiting dogs on her three legs as if it was the newest fashion.
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Click here to view the Babetikosweti Basuin 2011, our yearly Newsletter |
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