Joburg Theatre to present Janice Honeyman’s Peter Pan

Janice Honeyman’s Peter Pan is proudly brought to audiences by BankservAfrica and is produced for Joburg Theatre by Bernard Jay.

In true panto style, the villainous Captain Hook will have audiences booing and hissing, while his side-kicks, the non-conforming Mr Smee and ‘Dame’ Clementina Coconut, balance out the villainy with laughter and fun. Tinker Bell, Mr and Mrs Darling, Wendy and the Darling boys, their nursery dog Nana, The Lost Boys, the pirate crew and their beautiful girls fill the stage in this fast-paced, lavishly designed, over-the-top Janice Honeyman written-and-directed panto with plenty of surprises and thrills for adults and children alike.

Peter Pan features award-winning stage and television star Craig Urbani as Captain Hook and Idols favourite Bongi Mthombeni as Mister Smee, in his record-breaking fourth successive Joburg Theatre pantomime.

“I did panto in Wimbledon and Bradford in the UK,” says Urbani. “Never one in South Africa so I’m looking forward to performing on stage again. Especially the Mandela stage. It has amazing memories for me, my theatrical home. Doing panto is going to make this a special Christmas season.”

Michael Riff Themba will play the courageous and gutsy Peter Pan. In just over a year in professional theatre, Themba has appeared in Starlight Express directed by Honeyman, The Colored Museum directed by James Ngcobo, and most recently, Monty Python’s Spamalot.

The passionate and peppery fairy, Tinker Bell, will be played by Thembsie Matu, best known to South Africans for her hilarious character Prudence in the DStv adverts on-screen.

Weslee Swain Lauder will play the side-splitting zany role of the Dame, the Nanny of The Darling Family, but with a family secret hidden deep into the plot.

The Darling Children will be played by Joanna Abatzoglou, Emil Haarhoff, and Clint Lesch.

The full company of the panto is completed by TeeKay Baloyi, Cameron Botha, Delray Burns, Pasha Dos Santos, Clive Gilson, Nurit Michele Graff, Samuel Hyde, Angela Inglis, Kent Jeycocke, Brandon Lindsay, Dolly Louw, Sabelo Radebe, Dale Scheepers and Natasha van der Merwe.

The creative panto team consists of Graham McLusky (lighting designer), Roelof Colyn (musical director), Trevor Peters (sound designer) and Timothy Le Roux (choreographer and resident director).

And in 2014, Joburg Theatre introduces Odourama. Scratch ‘n sniff one’s way into beautiful scented rose gardens and wonderful beach cocktails ... but beware of a few surprises on the way.

When Honeyman first unveiled her Peter Pan at Joburg Theatre in 2007, it proved to be the most successful of all her pantomimes to date. Terrific pre-season sales for 2014 indicate that Peter Pan is destined to be just as popular on its return, with over 40 000 tickets already sold.

“It’s a Scentsation,” says Honeyman. “This is a panto that we not only see and hear but smell as well. Or sometimes not so well, for instance Captain Hook’s Stinky-Toe-Jam-Socks. Using smell we hope will be evocative, create atmosphere and enhance the overall impact of the story. You will not only experience sound surround but sense surround.”

Honeyman continues, “Peter Pan is going to be fun, full of adventure, youthful enthusiasm and life. We are going to follow Peter Pan’s exploits and escapades, Tinker Bell’s magical mischief and Captain Hook’s bullying, malicious and monstrous mayhem. The panto team refuse to grow up. So fly with us, soaring through the stratosphere on an airborne adventure to Neverland. As a panto it’s typical, topical and tropical. We assure you barrels of laughs and cannon shots of comedy. So all aboard for a full sail journey to Peter Pan’s Panto land.”

Janice Honeyman’s Peter Pan opens on The Mandela stage on Wednesday, 5 November and runs until Sunday, 28 December. Tickets, from R195 to R310, are on sale now via www.joburgtheatre.com or by calling 0861 670 670.

Popular discounted ticket rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling the theatre on 011 877 6853. Hospitality packages – from youngsters’ birthday parties to private fine dining - are available in one of Joburg Theatre’s five-star suites, as well as in the theatre restaurant, STAGES.

The pantomime has become an annual diary fixture for many South Africans, young and old, and 2014 marks the fourth year that BankservAfrica is the main sponsor.

“We are proud of our partnership with the Joburg Theatre and Janice Honeyman’s pantomime as it aligns to our focus on investing in South African talent while assisting many artists in realising their dreams to perform at one of South Africa’s most loved theatres,” says Michael Rubenstein, head of marketing and corporate reputation at BankservAfrica.

“The arts form an important part of our economy and it requires continuous development and investment from both private and public sectors. Through our investment we are giving many children all over Gauteng the opportunity to be exposed to creativity and the world of imagination,” adds Rubenstein.

Janice Honeyman’s Peter Pan is brought to audiences at Joburg Theatre by BankservAfrica, in association with M-Net, Jacaranda FM and Your Family magazine.