PerspekTIEF
Satircal Comedy Cabaret
Writer: Gerard VAN ROOYEN | Director: Gerard VAN ROOYEN | Performer: Gerard VAN ROOYEN | Graphic Designer: Lara CLUCAS
Language and mature content
Written, directed, and performed by Gerard, who takes the audience by the hand and leads them through the maze of modern society. Pausing to point and laugh and sometimes to wonder or fret. All of this is driven by humor, satire, and parody. By reducing these issues to their lowest common denominators, we may find sublimity in their hidden simplicity. By inflating it to the ridiculous, we may perhaps find laughter in that which would otherwise make us cry. Gerard, the aptly named PerspekTIEF, takes the audience from the sublime to the ridiculous in the hopes that everyone can escape for a bit.
Gerard van Rooyen started his theatrical journey in 2015 when he was entranced by Cabaret at the Fugard Theatre. After he received his Civil Engineering Degree from Stellenbosch University in 2019, he attended LAMTA until 2022. At LAMTA he honed his craft as a performer and subsequently worked in four large-scale, award-winning musicals. Most notably, he was nominated for the 2025 Naledi Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work as Hanschen Rillow in Spring Awakening (2024).
After years of traversing the musical-theatre industry, Gerard decided to write his own show. So he threw his Afrikaans background, humoristic portent, and theatrical training into a cauldron and cooked up PerspekTIEF. The show was devised to act as the flagship show of Gerard’s auvre. Lighthearted, biting, and fast-paced, PerspekTIEF promises to be an exciting ride for any newcomer to his style.
Gerard is a very referential person. Having not grown up in theatre, he had to teach himself a lot about the mysterious world that he found at the age of 18. In PerspekTIEF you may sense the influences that have shaped his own unique style of expression: from Cabaret, Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, and Victor Borge. The show is founded on the theatrical principles in cabaret theatre, clowning, and Vaudeville. Marrying comedy with critique and tickling the audience with knives.
Gerard spent the latter half of 2025 carefully constructing PerspekTIEF into a show that would not only make people laugh but feel as well. He engaged his signature song-parodying skills and developed side-splitting renditions of beloved classics. Literal classics: Strauss’s Tritsch Tratsch Polka and Offenbach’s Can Can were two of the victims of his witty lyrical overhauls. He has written a myriad of comedic bits, even including aspects of mathematics.
This show promises to be something unique, fresh, and very exciting. There is a flavor for every audience member to savor. Come join us in exploring the exciting, ever-evolving world of perspective.
Headshot by: Justin MUNITZ
