Janice Honeyman

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Janice Honeyman (1949- ) [1]. Dynamic actress, highly respected director and author, particularly of children’s plays and pantomimes, arts administrator.

Biography

Training

Born and educated in Cape Town, Janice graduated with a BA and Performer's Diploma in Speech and Drama from the University of Cape Town.

Career

She joined the The Space Theatre and worked for CAPAB’s youth group with Robin Malan. She later became head of the Youth Group at PACT, before becoming a freelance actress and director.

Also worked on Theatre-In-Education programs for PACT. She was appointed Assistant Artistic Director to PACT's Playwork, directing schools' programmes and children's theatre.

One of the founding members of The Company she went on to work at, and eventually become a deputy director of, the Market Theatre.

In 1993 she was appointed Deputy Executive Director of the Johannesburg Civic Theatre, later becoming Executive Director.

In 2001 she resigned to move back to Cape Town to work on a freelance basis.

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

As actress

Stage

Acting roles include Once Upon a Mattress (1967), Peer Gynt (1968), The Fantasticks (1968, UCT Drama Department), Oh, What a Lovely War! (1969, UCT Drama Department), Hamlet ((1969, UCT Drama Department), Kinkels innie Kabel (1970, PACT), Antigone (1970, PACT), Hotel Paradiso (1971, PACT), The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds (1971, PACT), Die Hand Vol Vere (1971, PACT), Lovers (1972, PACT), Babbelkous en Bruidegom (1973, PACT), Investigations into the Death of a Greek (1973, PACT), Muzeeka (1973, PACT), Home Fires (1973, PACT), Woyzeck (1973, PACT), Tartuffe (1973, PACT), Story Theatre (1974, PACT), Lysistrata (1974, The Company), “Hester” in Hello and Goodbye (1974, The Company), Luv (1977, Market Theatre), Rookery Nook (1980, PACT), Don Juan (1980, Market Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1981, PACT), Mame (1982, Brickhill-Burke), 'night, Mother (1983, Barney Simon), “Gertrude Stein” in Gertrude Stein and a Companion (1985, Market), "Peppermint Patty" in Snoopy!!! (1985, PACOFS)

She also performed in Richard III, Zoo Zoo Widdershins Zoo,

Film

She appeared in Blink Stefaans (1981).

As director

Janice Honeyman has directed numerous productions in South Africa and abroad. Her directorial work includes:

1969: Cape Parade Adventure (UCT Drama Department)

1974: May Day Adventure (The Company)

1974: Twelfth Night (The Company)

1975: WAM! (A Magical Music Tour) (PACT Playwork)

1976: The Adventures of a Merry Madcap (Market Theatre)

1976: The Crucible (Market Theatre)

1976: Madame de Sade (The Company)

1978: Cinderella (PACT)

1979: Holy Moses and All That Jazz (Market Theatre)

1980/1981: An Arabian Night (Market Theatre/Baxter Theatre)

1981: Ain’t We Got Fun (Market Theatre)

1981: Marico Moonshine and Mampoer (with Barney Simon, Market Theatre)

1981: Met Permissie Gesê (Market Theatre)

1982: Romeo and Juliet (Market Theatre)

1982/1983: And Green And Golden (Market Theatre)

1983: This is for Keeps (Market Theatre)

1983: Tom Jones (PACT)

1983: Knickerbocker Knockabout (CAPAB)

1983/1984: Forbidden Fruits (CAPAB, Market Theatre)

1984: Torch Song Trilogy (Market Theatre)

1984: True Confusions (Market Theatre)

1984: Custom of the Country (Market Theatre)

1985: Isn't It Romantic (Pieter Toerien)

1985: The Comedy of Errors (PACT)

1986: As Is

1986: Snake Beneath the Rose (Pieter Toerien)

1986: Tales from the Pleasure Palace (The Loft Company)

1986/1987: I'm not Rappaport (Market Theatre/CAPAB)

1987: Black and White Follies Market Theatre)

1987: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (PACT)

1988: Amabali – It’s Storytime (Market)

1988: Vid. Alex (Market Theatre)

1988: Hello and Goodbye with Antony Sher and Estelle Kohler for the Royal Shakespeare Company

1988: Aladdin (PACT)

1989: Driving Miss Daisy (Market Theatre)

1989: Hard Times PACT

1989: Candide (NAPAC)

1989: The Story of Margaret Harding (PACT)

1989: Jack and the Beanstalk PACT

1990: Thing? (Grahamstown Arts Festival)

1990: A Kiss on Your Koeksister (Market Theatre)

1990: Double Thick Dreams (Market Theatre)

1990: The Sleeping Beauty (PACT)

1990/1991: Shadowlands (Market Theatre/Baxter Theatre)

1991/1992: Love Letters (Pieter Toerien)

1992: The Merchant of Venice (CAPAB)

1992: Sinbad's African Adventures (PACT)

1992: Poison (CAPAB)

1992: Nightsky (Market Theatre)

1993: Once on This Island (NAPAC)

1993: Jack and the Beanstalk (Market)

1994: Hair (Civic Theatre)

1995: Leader of the Pack (Civic Theatre)

1996: The Taming of the Shrew (CAPAB)

1996: A Tale of Two Cities (Civic Theatre)

1996: Rooikappietjie (State Theatre)

1996: The Twilight of the Golds (Civic Theatre)

1997: La Cage aux Folles (Civic Theatre)

1997: Robin's A Cruise-Ou (Civic Theatre)

1998: Turkish Delights (Tesson Theatre)

1999: Little Shop of Horrors (Civic Theatre)

2001: Rose

2001: The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Baxter Theatre)

2002: Cardboard Dreams (Johannesburg Civic Centre)

2002: Die Nagtegaal se Liefde (University of Stellenbosch Drama Department)

2002: Nothing but the Truth (Grahamstown Festival, Baxter Theatre, Market Theatre), subsequent productions in 2003/2004 (in Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg) and a tour to USA and Australia, and again 2009/2010 (Market Theatre).

2002/2003: Vatmaar (Oude Libertas Theatre, KKNK, Baxter Theatre)

2003: Hänsel und Gretel (Cape Town Opera)

2003: Madiba Magic (Grahamstown Festival, Baxter Theatre)

2004: Freedom Too, a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the Celebrate South Africa Festival in London.

2004: Oom Vanya/Uncle Vanya (Baxter)

2005: Twaalfde Nag (Oude Libertas Theatre, KKNK, Baxter Theatre)

2005: Show Boat (Cape Town Opera)

2005: Exits and Entrances (Baxter Theatre)

2006: Begeerte (KKNK, Baxter Theatre)

2006: Booitjie and the Oubaas (National Arts Festival, Baxter Theatre)

2006: Die Vloek van die Strandjutwolf (Baxter Theatre/State Theatre)

2006/2007: Starbrite – Star Bright (with Marcus Desando, Artscape)

2007: Shirley, Goodness and Mercy (Baxter Theatre)

2007: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Baxter Theatre)

2007: Doubt (Baxter Theatre, State Theatre)

2008/2009: Starbrite – Star Bright (Cape Town Opera, Baxter Theatre)

2009: The Tempest (Baxter Theatre in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company)

2009: Mother to Mother (Baxter Theatre)

2009: I Am My Own Wife (Baxter Theatre)

2010: The Boys in the Photograph (Joburg Theatre)

2011: Broken Glass (Fugard Theatre)

2011: Die Kaptein se Tier (Fugard Theatre)

2012: Santa's Story (Fugard Theatre)

2012: The Blue Iris (Fugard Theatre)

2012: Doodsnikke (KKNK)

2013: Bidsprinkaan (Suidoosterfees, Woordfees)

2014: Missing... (Baxter Theatre, Market Theatre)

2015: Missing... (State Theatre, Playhouse Theatre)

2015: Sister Act (Joburg Theatre)

2015: The Merry Widow of Malagawi (Cape Town Opera)

2016: Missing... (Artscape)

2016: Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood (Joburg Theatre)

2019: Kunene and the King (Fugard Theatre)

2024: Mamma Mia! (Artscape and The Teatro)

Other productions (dates unknown) include: Hardy Folk, The Merchant of Venice (at the Market Theatre), Rootz, Die Fledermaus, Cantata, and Julius Hay's Have in London.

As playwright

As a playwright she is particularly renowned for her children's work and her pantomimes, in which she developed an own style that combined entertainment, educational material and social issues in one event. She has also created a number of productions collaboratively or through the process of devising, and has adapted literary and operatic classics. Her works include:

Other play texts credited to Honeyman:

Television

For SABC TV she was the popular presenter of Bangalory Time and Hobbies, appeared in The Diggers, Die Lewe is... (a four part Afrikaans cabaret series) and was the director of In Broad Daylight.

Awards, etc

Janet is the winner of numerous awards, including the Five Roses Young Artists Award, the Breytenbach Epathlon, a number of Vita Awards and Fleur du Cap Awards, and the Johnnie Walker Achiever Award.

She won the National Vita Award for best director for Shadowlands.

Nominee 1991 Honeyman, Janice (Breytenbach Epathlon for best director);

In 2002 she was nominated for the Best Director Award in the Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards and won an FNB Vita Award in the same category for The Beauty Queen of Leenane. A year later, she won the Fleur du Cap award for Best Director for Nothing but the Truth and Vatmaar.

Janice was awarded the 2005 Fleur du Cap Award for Best Director for Oom Wanja/Uncle Vanya.

Mame for which she won the Gallo Award for Best Performance in a Musical. She has also been awarded the Ernest Oppenheimer Award for her work during her appointment as Resident Director at The Market Theatre, the Five Roses Award and the SA Young Artists Award.

In 2025 received the FynArts Festival Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to South African theatre and performance.

Sources

Programme of Pieter Toerien's Isn't It Romantic in 1985.

Programme of Pieter Toerien's Snake Beneath the Rose in 1986.

SACD 1973; 1974; 1977/78; 1979/80; 1980/81.

Astbury 1979.

Pat Schwartz 1988.

Tucker, 1997.

Beeld Plus, 1 March 2001.

Die Beeld, 30 May 2007.

Mandisa Maphisa. 2025. "Janice Honeyman vereer vir haar lewenswerk", Netwerk24, 19 April[2]

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