Janice Honeyman

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

Acting roles include The Fantasticks (1968, UCT Drama Department), Oh, What a Lovely War! (1969, UCT Drama Department), Kinkels innie Kabel (1970, PACT), Hotel Paradiso (1971, PACT), The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds (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), Don Juan (1980, Market Theatre), 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,

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)

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)

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

1984: Torch Song Trilogy (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)

1987: Black and White Follies Market Theatre)

1987: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (PACT)

1988: Amabali – It’s Storytime (Market)

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: Jack and the Beanstalk PACT

1990: A Kiss on Your Koeksister (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)

1993: Jack and the Beanstalk (Market)

1994: Hair Civic Theatre

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: 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: Exits and Entrances (Baxter Theatre)

2006: Begeerte (KKNK, Baxter Theatre)

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

2007: Shirley, Goodness and Mercy (Baxter Theatre)

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

Other productions (dates unknown) include: The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Hardy Folk, The Merchant of Venice (at the Market Theatre), Rootz, Die Fledermaus, Cantata, Star Bright/Starbrite?, Madame De Sade, 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. Her works include:

• Cape Parade Adventure (1969)

• May Day Adventure (1974)

• WAM (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) (1975)

• The Adventures of a Merry Madcap (1976)

• An Arabian Night (1980)

• Marico Moonshine and Mampoer (with Barney Simon, 1981)

• And Green And Golden (1982)

• This is for Keeps (with Vanessa Cooke and Danny Keogh, 1983)

• Forbidden Fruits (1983)

• Tom Jones (1983)

• Knickerbocker Knockabout (1983)

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (pantomime, 1987)

• Amabali – It’s Storytime (1988)

• Aladdin (1988)

• Hard Times (1989)

• Jack and the Beanstalk (pantomime, 1989)

• The Sleeping Beauty (pantomime, 1990)

• Sinbad's African Adventures (1992)

• Vatmaar (2002)

• Madiba Magic (2003)

• Shirley, Goodness and Mercy (with Chris van Wyk, 2007)

Other play texts credited to Honeyman:

• Waterfront (draft/date unknown)

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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