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
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).
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)
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)
1983/1984: 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.
1989: Driving Miss Daisy (Market Theatre)
1989: Hard Times PACT
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)
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)
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)
Other productions (dates unknown) include: The Beauty Queen of Leenane,
Among the productions Janice directed in her career were , Star Bright, Madame De Sade, Hardy Folk (with the Young Market), The Merchant of Venice (at the Market Theatre),
She wrote and directed PACT’s pantomime Aladdin in 1988.
Rootz (***, 19*), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2001), **'s Cinderella (***, 200*), Die Fledermaus (ArtsCape, 200*), **, Oom Vanya/Uncle Vanya]] (Baxter, 2004 )***,Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Baxter Theatre, 2007), . and Julius Hay's Have in London. In 2004 she directed the Celebrate South Africa Festival in the Royal Festival Hall, London.
and She also directed Freedom Too, a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the Celebrate South Africa Festival More recent work includes Aladdin (PACT, 1988), Starbrite (Artscape 2006-7) and Cantata.
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)
- 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)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (pantomime, 1987)
- Amabali – It’s Storytime (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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