After captivating audiences at its world premiere in Sri Lanka and earning rave reviews at the Hilton Arts Festival in KZN last August, Jessica Haines’ extraordinary one-woman show Once Upon a Teacup makes its long-awaited Johannesburg debut at Theatre on the Square, Sandton, from July 28 to August 1.
Written and performed by Haines and directed by multi-award-winning theatre-maker James Cuningham, Once Upon a Teacup is a 70-minute work of physical, visual and shadow theatre that follows Violet – a young girl growing up in Africa – through the landscape of childhood imagination and into the pressures of the modern world. The script, written entirely in rhyming couplets, weaves together light, shadow, object puppetry, movement and an ingeniously sparse collection of props to conjure a world that is tender, darkly funny and deeply moving.
“Once Upon a Teacup begins on a farm in KZN and I hope audiences will recognise the many character archetypes that I bring to life,” says Haines. “The play explores the notion and power of imagination and the toll it takes under pop culture constructs, social media and the inevitable pressure of growing up. Violet’s mental health is compromised and she soon finds herself in a dark and unpredictable place, only to be rescued by the concept of home and the memories of her childhood.
“I’m hoping that the story reawakens the child in everyone, the lost ability to play, create and fully invest in the colourful and crazy world of our imagination, which is so often diluted by the pressure and fast pulse of adulthood. My job as an actor is to step inside and dismantle the human condition.”
At the Hilton Arts Festival, South African theatre critics were struck by the mastery and intimacy of the performance. Writing in The Critter, reviewer Coralie Diack described it as a “magical serving of artistry”, noting that Haines is “strong in the playing of characterisation; physically adept at expressive movement” and brings “authentic intimacy” to a script so intelligently delivered in rhyme that many in the audience barely noticed the form. The show, the review concluded, “leaves one weeping”.
At its 2024 world premiere in Colombo, Sri Lanka, The Daily FT theatre critic Savithri Rodrigo wrote that the audience sat in awe as Haines “worked through the life of Violet in all its multi-layered, multi-faceted ups, downs, ins and outs”, describing the performance as possessed of “infectious energy” and her use of light, shadow and props as “ingenious”.
The show grew out of Haines’ studies in shadow theatre under Norbert Gotz and the Theatre der Schatten in Bamberg, Germany in 2024. To direct it, she brought in Le Coq-trained actor and director James Cuningham – a collaborator whose own career spans more than 60 theatre, film and television productions across 15 countries, with credits alongside Idris Elba, Jonathan Bailey and Sir Ian McKellen.
Best known to South African and international cinema audiences for her leading role opposite John Malkovich in the film Disgrace, adapted from the JM Coetzee novel, Haines holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from UCT and a Cecchetti Ballet qualification from the UCT Ballet School. Her screen credits include Home Affairs, Isidingo, Gazlam and Reyke. She has spent recent years living in Sri Lanka, Kenya and Uganda, and it is the creative ferment of these places that gave rise to this show.
“Sri Lanka was a creative renaissance for me,” says Haines who moved back to Kenya this year. “Colombo has a cultural edge and charge that I found incredibly inspiring. It beats a similar drum to Africa – the stories are extracted from the natural world, the heat, the moon, the sea and the seasons. Their stories are ancient, spiritual and rather scary. They tell elaborate tales using masks, exaggerated gesture and exquisite costumes to enrapture, terrify and mystify.”
