Every year Janice Honeyman’s pantomimes delight children big and small. Diane de Beer asks Tobie Cronje and Honeyman, the local panto king and queen, to divulge some panto secrets
This is the third or fourth time that Janice Honeyman is doing a version of Sleeping Beauty as the annual Joburg Theatre pantomime… but who’s counting. Honeyman isn’t.
This is the first time it is being done again since 2002 so there’s a big enough gap to keep it fresh. But she is pleased to be writing a new one next year around the Robin Hood story, she says.
What she loves about Sleeping Beauty are the classical aspects so deeply entrenched in this pantomime. “There’s something old-fashioned about it,” she says and while even her young production team sometimes ask questions about a specific approach, even they have to nod their heads as she pulls it off.
“It’s something intangible,” she notes, but she’s not sure how to capture in words what works and why.
Working on her 19th panto for the Joburg Theatre, we should take her at her word. She does it year after year, reinvents yet another colourful spectacle that wows the kids and their parents, that’s why they all keep coming – some even bringing their own kids for the first time to keep in line with family tradition.
The evergreen tale of the beautiful princess who is cursed at her christening by the wicked fairy runs at The Mandela at Joburg Theatre from November 7 to December 30 with the casting, among other things, raring to rock your boat.
After a two-year absence from the panto tradition, the most-beloved of all South African panto stars, Tobie Cronjé, is back with his over-the-top portrayal of Dame Nora Nursey. And just watching and listening to him in rehearsals, you have to smile. It’s in the walk, the wiggle, the talk and simply because of the actor’s presence.
Also back on stage, but with a shorter leave of absence, Candida Mosoma, returns as the Good Fairy Floradora Daisy.
Named one of Cosmo’s Sexiest Men in 2010, Sowetan Live’s sexiest in 2011 and fourth in Men’s Health Cover Guy Search last year, Christopher Jaftha returns as Prince Harry Hunkador the Handsome, with Nicole Fortuin as Princess Aurora-Adora, and they have the added bonus of co-starring in SABC3’s new Afrikaans drama series Roer Jou Voete.
Timothy Moloi returns to play the revealingly named Sir Poensface Ponce-a-Lot, with Michelle Botha grinning devilishly as the Wicked Fairy Kakkamella Khakibos.
Providing some elegance and bundles of style, nine youngsters from the Joburg sports and dance training academy, Art of Motion, have been brought in to do exactly what their name suggests and will be doing much more than simply classical ballet and be fully integrated into the story, says Honeyman.
Talking musically, Honeyman has had huge fun mixing some old classics like If I Knew You Were Coming, I’d Have Baked a Cake with some contemporary funk.
When she has to talk about her own panto passion, does that still exist after 20 years?
“I am reaching an end,” she warns, because she wants to start writing her own material and sticking to one-offs that will conclude her extraordinary career. She is, for example, stepping onstage in Cape Town in December in a return of her glory Bangalory days.
But it is the young company on production and performance sides that keep her smiling. “I want to keep in touch. I have to understand modern sensibilities and that’s what they do. The rest is sheer puzzlement,” she says about her panto accomplishments.
As was true the past few years, her production team includes Timothy Le Roux (resident director), Graham McLusky (lighting designer), Trevor Peters (sound designer) and Nicol Sheraton (choreographer).
More than 30 000 tickets have already been sold for this year’s season, with tickets for preview shows on November 7 and November 8 ranging from R165 to R290. Bookings are through www.joburg theatre.com or 0861 670 670. Group discounts and hospitality packages are available. Visit www.joburgtheatre.com or call as abocve.