A musical Nativity pantomime devised by Janice Honeyman.

Original text

Adapted from two Medieval Mystery Plays.

The 2006 version, retitled Starbrite, is set in and around Cape Town, the action follows the adventures of the shepherds Klaas, Dwaas, Jaap en Swaap as they follow the bright star through the Karoo and finally meet Queenie and her backyard shebeen beauties. Joseph, the Klopse Carpenter from the Bo-Kaap, and Mary, gatecrash a backstreet party where they are given shelter in the backyard among the goats, sheep and chickens.

Performance history in South Africa

1974: Star Bright presented by PACT Playwork at Masker Theatre, Pretoria and Arena Theatre, Johannesburg, directed by Janice Honeyman.

2006: Starbrite presented at Artscape in the 2006-7 season, it was co-directed by Honeyman and Marcus Desando, with Lisa Garson as the musical director, designs by Michael Mitchell and lighting by Benever Arendse. The cast included Kurt Haupt as the puckish Archangel Gabriel, who leads a cast of 45 singers and actors, inluding the Cape Town Vocal Ensemble, 10 children from the Symphony Secondary School in Athlone and 8 children of members of the Cape Town Vocal Ensemble and Cape Town Opera personnel.

2008: Remounted at the Baxter Theatre in 2008-9 by Janice Honeyman.

Sources

Greyvenstein, Walter 1988. The history and development of children's theatre in English in South Africa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University.

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