Elvis du Pisanie

6:30 PM - 10:15 PM CAT
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THE RETURN OF ELVIS DU PISANIE
Written and Directed by Paul Slabolepszy Starring Ashley Dowds.
A story that moves from pure nostalgia, through extreme heartache, to unbridled joy…
The Return of Elvis du Pisanie is all at once – sad, amusing and gloriously uplifting…
Ashley Dowds stars as Eddie du Pisanie, in the revival of Paul Slabolepszy’s hit play, The Return Of Elvis du Pisanie.
Photo by Keaton Ditchfield.
Eddie du Pisanie (played by Ashley Dowds) – a forty-six year old East Rand salesman – is retrenched and decides life is no longer worth living.
He writes a suicide note to his wife and is about to gas himself in his car in the garage, when he switches on the car radio. The Elvis Presley song he hears does more than take him back 30 years – it recalls an event in his childhood that changed his life forever. Abandoning – for the moment – the idea of suicide, he drives the 200 kilometre journey to the town in which he grew up, to a lamp post opposite the ex-Carlton Bioscope in Witbank, there to retrace his life, to try to find out what went wrong, how it went wrong, and – perhaps most importantly – why it went wrong…
Can we change our own destinies…? “Elvis” du Pisanie is about to find out…


“A milestone for South African Theatre…!” (Humphrey Tyler SUNDAY TRIBUNE)
“He mesmerises his audience…! Not to be missed…!” (Garalt McLiam THE STAR)
“The Great South African Novel come to life onstage…!”
“Profound poetry… Equal to anything by Beckett or Pinter…!” “Nothing less than the new Bosman… what a performance, what a play…!” (Iain MacDonald THE ARGUS)
“Buy, beg or steal but get your hands on a ticket for this magnificent play…!” (Billy Suter NATAL MERCURY)
“A vigorous, robust tour de force… a memorable evening of theatre…!” (Terry Herbst EASTERN PROVINCE HERALD)
“A tale – fragile and beautiful as blown glass – of dreams lost and found…” (Brenda van Rooyen PRETORIA NEWS)
The Return of Elvis du Pisanie – first performed in July, 1992 – has the distinction of having won more awards (in a single year) than any other play in the history of South African Theatre – 1993 Vita, Fleur du Cap and Dalro Awards included Best New South African Play, Best Actor, Best Production, Best Director – as well as The Star “Tonight”/IGI Life Vita Award for Comedy. It has also been presented – by invitation – in Washington DC and Chicago, USA.
Watch the promo videos here:
https://youtu.be/S06IR_mCFLg?si=D3dtR0613NPGLtjg
https://youtu.be/CIsZyechH1c?si=f1QVIjoW3x5D3Pgw