Pinocchio Pantomime in Johannesburg from 4 November

Adventures of Pinocchio

We have all heard of the story of the little wooden boy who was carved from a piece of pine by the wood­carver Geppetto and who was cre­ated as a pup­pet but dreamt of becom­ing a “real boy” named Pinocchio. This fic­tional char­ac­ter has been around since 1883 and has become a well loved tale and was cer­tainly a firm favour­ite of mine whilst I was grow­ing up.

And if you are in Johannesburg or its sur­round­ing areas you will be happy to know that Pinocchio will be the biggest pan­to­mime ever this year with 60 artists tak­ing part. If you already au fait with pan­to­mimes you prob­ably call them panto’s and already have your tick­ets booked. However, if you do not fall into this cat­egory let me give you a little refresher in what the pan­to­mime is ... It is a singing, dan­cing, comedic per­form­ance that is usu­ally per­formed dur­ing the fest­ive sea­son (Christmas and New Year). Think audi­ence par­ti­cip­a­tion, a lot of laughs, an evil vil­lain, the Panto Dame (think man dressed as really “beau­ti­ful” woman) and leav­ing feel­ing lighter and happier.

Janice Honeyman is syn­onym­ous with pan­to­mimes in South Africa and this year she is not hold­ing back as there will be a fant­astic cast of 60 per­formers tak­ing to the Mandela Stage at the Johannesburg Theatre from 4 November 2009 to 3 January 2010.

The lov­ing char­ac­ter of Geppetto will be played by tv, film and stage actor Tobie Cronjé. I have very fond memor­ies of him play­ing the role of the BFG (from a Roald Dahl novel) many years ago. If you remem­ber the South African ver­sion of the show, The Weakest Link, you will most def­in­itely remem­ber Fiona Coyne. Her humour and sharp wit suit her per­fectly in the role of the cat who is Pinocchio’s wicked accom­plice. And the role of the fox is played by well know tv celebrity Terrence Bridgett (Chico in local soapie Isidingo).

Fiona Ramsay

Fiona Ramsay, who is a lead­ing lady of the stage, returns to the stage after a 7 year absence from pan­to­mimes and plays the char­ac­ter of the magical Blue Fairy. Sibu Radebe, who has won two Naledi awards (“Best Comedy Performer” and “Best Breakthrough Performer 2008”) has been cast in the role of Pinocchio. I cer­tainly enjoyed him in the role of Lefou, Gaston’s sidekick, in the South African pro­duc­tion of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast earlier this year. And the ladies in the audi­ence will be treated to a guest appear­ance from the heart-throb Jacques Terre-Blanche who became an overnight suc­cess thanks to the 2003 Idols series.

This year the cast is so large as there is a com­pany of 25 dan­cers from the South African Ballet Theatre who are spe­cial guest stars. And the stage will def­in­itely be full when all 60 cast mem­bers per­form simultaneously.

If you need a little reminder of the story of Pinochio then here it goes. This is the story of Pinocchio who is carved out of pine by Geppetto. The story then goes on to tell us Pinocchio’s quest to become a real boy and along the way he has a num­ber of adven­tures. He encoun­ters some wicked char­ac­ters who try to lead him a stray (the fox and cat), the Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket who tries to steer Pinocchio in the right dir­ec­tion. The mes­sage of the story is Geppetto’s uncon­di­tional love for his son and is some­thing we can all take with us.

How to book:
Tickets for this show are the same prices they were in 2007 and range from R171 to R222 per per­son. You can pur­chase your tick­ets at Computicket or if you would like to take up the group dis­count offer for groups of 10 or more then tele­phone the theatre’s VIP tick­et­ing on +27 (0)11 877‑6854.

And don’t for­get that:
When you wish upon a star
Makes no dif­fer­ence who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

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