Jana Cilliers

(****-****). Actress. Trained at RADA. Nominated for Best Actress for Fleur du Cap 1978. Performed in Die Vroue van Troje at the Market Theatre. (SACD 1977/78) (SACD 1979/80)

CILLIERS, Jana. Actress. (1950-) Daughter of renowned painter Betty-Cilliers Barnard, she studied acting at the University of Pretoria and London’s RADA, before returning to South Africa in 197??**** to become part of the new generation of bilingual performers working for the various Performing Arts Councils, as well as the independent companies such as The Space in Cape Town (My Husband’s wild desires almost drove me mad, 197*) and The Market Theatre in Johannesburg) and Pieter Toerien Productions (**). She married actor/film director Regardt van den Bergh (they have two daughters, of which one - Lika van den Bergh - also turned to acting) and later married actor Bill Flynn. Her roles on stage include "Frankie" in Frankie and Johnny at the Claire de Lune. Besides numerous leading roles in major stage productions, she became a major film and television performer with a vast variety of roles (e.g. "Salomé" in Bill Faure’s sumptuous SABC production of Oscar Wilde’s play, and roles in Whirpool, City People, and ***). In the 1990s she began to establish a major reputation for her superb one-woman performances – including The American Popepess, 2001. Pope Joan (199* - and in Afrikaans as "Pous Johanna"), Romeo en Julia (Vleis, Rys, en Aartappels, 2005), Master Class (where she played Maria Callas, winning a Fleur du Cap Theatre Award, Best Actress, 1996) and Opdrag: Ingrid Jonker (1998-9) * Played a role in, *** which was staged at The Space. * She starred in Barney Simon’s production of an Afrikaans translation of The Women of Troy together with Aletta Bezuidenhout, Grethe Fox, Sandra Prinsloo and Wilna Snyman at the Market Theatre in 1977. She starred in the Brickhill-Burke production of Alan Aykbourn’s trilogy, The Norman Conquests, separately titled Table Manners, Living Together and Round and Round the Garden, at His Majesty's Theatre in 1979 together with Bill Flynn, Sandra Duncan, Dorothy-Ann Gould, Eckard Rabe and John Lesley under direction of Brian Rawlinson. She starred in Michael Frayn’s adaptation of Chekhov’s comedy called Wild Honey together with Michael Richard under Bobby Heaney’s direction at the Alexander Theatre in August 1986. She starred in Terence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny at the Claire de Lune in 1988. She starred in Richard Harris’s The Maintenance Man at the Leonard Rayne Theatre in 1990. She starred in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters at the Richard Haines Theatre in September 1991. She starred in Tennesse Williams’ The Glass Menagerie in 1994. , The American Popepess, 2001. ??**(Tucker, 1997)

Quoted from the programme of Snake Beneath the Rose performed in 1986: 'Jana, born in Pretoria, graduated from the University of Pretoria with a BA and then continued studying drama at the Royal Academy of Performing Arts. Her stage appearances in this country include The Norman Conquests for the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town and Rain for CAPAB. Most recently she toured her successful one-woman show Pous Johanna II which originally premiered as one of the productions at the Market Theatre's Women's Festival. Her television work includes Salome, Waiting and the series City People. She has also appeared in feature films for producer Jans Rautenbach and for her husband Regardt van den Bergh. They have two daughters.'

Sources

Programme of Snake Beneath the Rose in 1986.

Return to ESAT Personalities C

Return to South African Theatre Personalities

Return to Main Page