P.G. du Plessis

P.G. du Plessis (1934-2017) was a multi-talented academic, author and journalist. His career included stints as lecturer, director of a research institute, journalist and newspaper editor, humorist, novelist and short-story writer, television personality and chat-show host, scriptwriter and film- and TV producer, and award-winning Afrikaans playwright.

Biography

Born Pieter Georg du Plessis on 14 July 1934 in Boshof in the Free State. He matriculated at the Hoër Volkskool in Heidelberg. In 1955 he obtained a BA degree, majoring in Afrikaans-Nederlands and History at the University of Pretoria.

Studied at the Universities of Pretoria and the Witwatersrand. Started as a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, working with N.P. van Wyk Louw, then joined Prof P.J. Nienaber at the newly founded Human Sciences Research Council, to become the first Director of the Institute for Languages, Literature and Arts. He and Nienaber established four Documentation Centres - one each for Art, Afrikaans Literature, Music and Theatre - in the Institute. The National Documentation Centre for the Performing Arts was headed by P.P.B. Breytenbach, the former Director of NTO and of PACT. Hereafter he turned to journalism (editor of the Pretoria daily newspaper Oggendblad), film-production (he founded the production company Sommatel) and farming on his farm Semoer in the Western Transvaal.

He began his writing career with a few published poems, then in 1969 - inspired by his mentor, N.P. van Wyk Louw, he turned to theatre and produced his first play, Die Nag van Legio, soon followed by five more major works, thus establishing himself as the most commanding playwright of his generation.

In the 1980s he became a much beloved TV personality, famous for his storytelling ability in programmes such as Spies en Plessie and Maak 'n Las, and his talent as interviewer of notable personalities with P.G. Gesels Met.

However his most important impact was as a multi-talented writer of numerous literary and popular works, for a range of media. Towards the end of his life, much was made of Fees van die Ongenooides , his unforgettable TV series on the Anglo-Boer War, and more significantly the gripping novel of the same name published shortly after, while for other critics the handful of plays had exerted an equal, or even more telling, influence on South African literature.

He passed away on 7 June 2017 aged 82.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

As writer

P.G. du Plessis wrote numerous poems, plays, short stories, novels, film and TV scripts over the years, many of them innovative and influential.

Stage plays

Started his playwriting career with the profound Die Nag van Legio (1969). Next came the immensely popular Mattewis en Meraai (1970, a dramatisation of a series of stories by Mikro), followed by the influential, controversial and hugely successful Siener in die Suburbs (1971), the futurist fantasy Plaston: DNS-Kind, the roaringly successful farce 'n Seder Val in Waterkloof (1975) and the Anglo-Boer War play Vereeniging, Vereniging. After this he turned to prose and television for a while, returning to the stage in 1999 with a play called **** which was produced at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees.

[TH]

2004 Nagkantoor, a tribute to the Afrikaans singer-composer Koos du Plessis. P.G. du Plessis wrote the script, directed by Sandra Prinsloo.

2011 Onderweg A stage version of Afrikaans singer, composer and playwright Jannie du Toit's autobiography, with text by P.G du Plessis, directed by Emma Bekker.

Two of his plays were successfully translated and produced in English, namely Seer in the Suburbs (1981) and ,

Short stories

He started as a prose writer with his renowned and beloved Koöperasiestories, serialized in Die Transvaler from 1980 onwards - short, tragi-comic and intensely human stories of life in a small town. (They were later reworked for television, gaining an enormous following). Followed over the years by more story collections in a similar vein, including Hier sit die Manne (1883), Het Olifante Elmboë? (1987), Neklis (1993) and Tussen die Riwwe (1997).

TV plays and series

Having written a enormously popular set of short stories entitled Koöperasiestories for Die Transvaler, he reworked the stories as a immensely popular TV series.

Fees van die Ongenooides,

Screenplays

He wrote the screenplays for ** films, including

Novels

Later in his life, Du Plessis also wrote two very diverse novels: The first was The Married Man's Guide to Adultery (1998), his only attempt to write in English, is a satire on modern life, in a style that Heilna du Plooy has referred to as "Koöperasiestories on steroids".

The second, Fees van die Ongenooides, was his last novel and is the one now considered by many to be one of his best artistic achievements and certainly his ultimate achievement in prose. A monumental work about the Anglo-Boer War, it was also translated and published in English (as The Feast of the Uninvited) - It had started out as TV series, and was expanded as a novel in 200*.

As storyteller and TV personality

In the 1980s he became a much beloved TV personality, famous for his storytelling ability as the presenter and participant in programmes such as Spies en Plessie and Maak 'n Las, and his talent as interviewer of notable personalities with P.G. Gesels Met.

Awards etc.

He was awarded the Hertzog Prize for Drama in 1972, especially for Siener in die Suburbs but also with the consideration of Die Nag van Legio. His

Sources

Percy Tucker, 1997;

Temple Hauptfleisch, 1997

J.C. Kannemeyer, 19**

Carstens, B.H.J. 2009.

Kuns en Vermaak (p. 6), Die Burger Friday, 9 June 2017.

Rapport Weekliks (pp. 8-9), Rapport 11 June 2017.

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