Janice Honeyman
Janice Honeyman (1949- ) [1]. Dynamic actress, highly respected director and author, particularly of children’s plays and pantomimes, arts administrator.
Contents
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.
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
She devised a pop-musical called Holy Moses and all that Jazz at The Market in 1979.
As actress
Major acting roles include “Hester” in The Company’s version of Hello and Goodbye in the seventies and playing “Gertrude Stein” in the Market's production of Gertrude Stein and a Companion.
She also performed in Kinkels innie Kabel, Babbelkous en Bruidegom, Lovers, Richard III, Hotel Paradiso, Investigations into the Death of a Greek, Muzeeka, Home Fires, Woyzeck, Zoo Zoo Widdershins Zoo, Tartuffe, Story Theatre, Luv (at the Market Theatre), Hello and Goodbye (at the Market Theatre), Don Juan (at the Market Theatre).
She starred in Leonard Schach’s production of the Paul Zindel play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds, for PACT in 1971, Aubrey Berg’s Story Theatre for PACT in 1974, the Academy-Company production of Murray Schisgal’s Broadway comedy Luv, directed by Barney Simon in 1977, Brickhill-Burke’s production of Mame at the Civic Theatre in November 1982, Barney Simon’s production of Marsha Norman’s 'night, Mother in September 1983.
Roles include: Peppermint Patty in Snoopy!!! (1985, PACOFS)
Other musicals include Oh, What a Lovely War and The Fantasticks.
performed in Lysistrata (The Company’s first production).
Sheldon: Her production of An Arabian Night, adapted from Sir Richard Burton’s translation of The Arabian Nights was staged at Upstairs at the Market and the Main Hall in 1980.
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)
1975: WAM! (A Magical Music Tour) (PACT Playwork)
1976: The Adventures of a Merry Madcap (Market Theatre)
1976: The Crucible (Market Theatre)
1981: Ain’t We Got Fun (Market Theatre)
1981: Marico Moonshine and Mampoer (with Barney Simon, Market Theatre)
1982: Romeo and Juliet (Market Theatre)
1982/1983: And Green And Golden (Market Theatre)
1983: This is for Keeps (Market Theatre)
1983/1984: Forbidden Fruits (CAPAB, Market Theatre)
1984: Torch Song Trilogy (Market Theatre)
1985: Isn't It Romantic (Pieter Toerien)
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)
1989: Driving Miss Daisy (Market Theatre)
1989: Hard Times PACT
1989: Jack and the Beanstalk PACT
1990: A Kiss on Your Koeksister (Market Theatre)
1992: The Merchant of Venice (CAPAB)
Among the productions Janice directed in her career were Twelfth Night, Star Bright, Madame De Sade, Hardy Folk (with the Young Market),Holy Moses and All That Jazz (at the Market Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (at the Market Theatre),An Arabian Night (at the Market Theatre 1980),
She then re-joined PACT, directing Twelfth Night and was appointed Assistant Artistic Director to PACT's Playwork, directing schools' programmes and children's theatre. Later productions for The Company include Arabian Night,
Comedy of Errors for PACT,
She wrote and directed PACT’s pantomime Aladdin in 1988.
PACT’s annual pantomime was her The Sleeping Beauty at the Alexander Theatre in 1990. She directed A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters which was staged at the Richard Haines Theatre in September 1991. She directed William Nicholson’s Shadowlands at the Market Theatre in 1991. Her production of Sinbad's African Adventures was staged at the Civic Theatre in 1992. Her pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk was staged at the Market in 1993. Her production of Hair was staged at the Civic Theatre in 1994, opening a day after Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as President of South Africa.
As director works include Hennie Aucamp's ground-breaking Afrikaans cabaret Met Permissie Gesê (198*), Hard Times (***, 19*), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (19*), Rootz (***, 19*), Kramer and Petersen's Poison (1992), Madiba Magic (***, 200*) **, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2001), **'s Vatmaar (Baxter Theatre, 2002), John Kani's Nothing But The Truth (Baxter Theatre, 2002) for which she received a Naledi award for Best Director, Cinderella (***, 200*), Die Fledermaus (ArtsCape, 200*), **, Oom Vanya/Uncle Vanya]] (Baxter, 2004 )***, Twaalfde Nag ("Twelfth Night" in Afrikaans) (Oude Libertas Theatre Stellenbosch, 2005), Athol Fugard’s Exits and Entrances (Baxter Theatre, 2005), Begeerte (Eugene O'Neill’s Desire under the Elms, Baxter Theatre and KKNK 2006), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Baxter Theatre, 2007), . In 200* she directed Hello and Goodbye with Antony Sher and Estelle Kohler and Julius Hay's Have in London. In 2004 she directed the Celebrate South Africa Festival in the Royal Festival Hall, London.
Janice has directed Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye with Antony Sher and Estelle Kohler for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Madiba Magic at the Baxter Theatre Centre. She also directed Freedom Too, a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the Celebrate South Africa Festival In 2005 she directed Twaalfde Nag and Exits and Entrances. Janice had a very busy 2006 – she directed the world premiere of Athol Fugard's latest play, Booitjie and the Oubaas, which was praised by audiences and media alike, as well as the Baxter PlayGround performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy. More recent work includes Aladdin (PACT, 1988), Starbrite (Artscape 2006-7) and Cantata. She also directed Vatmaar, Nothing but the Truth and Begeerte.
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)
- 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)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (pantomime, 1987)
- Amabali – It’s Storytime (1988)
- Hard Times (1989)
- Jack and the Beanstalk (1989)
- 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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