Valda Adams

Valda Adams (b. 07/01/1916 - d. Cape Town, 20/06/2010) was an actress and diplomat’s wife. Also credited as Valda Lomberg.

Biography

Valda Margaret Adams studied Speech and Drama at the University of Cape Town and in 1938 was given the non-speaking role of Maria van Riebeeck in the film Die Bou van ‘n Nasie (Joseph Albrecht/Andries A. Pienaar). On the stage she appeared in Time and the Conways (1939) and Music at Night (1946), for the Cape Town Repertory Theatre Society, as well as in A Murder Has Been Arranged (1941) and Heartbreak House (1942) for the Combined Dramatic Societies of Cape Town, all at the Little Theatre. For A Murder Has Been Arranged she was also the producer.

In 1941 she married Malcolm Lomberg (1913-1987), who became a career diplomat, and her stage appearances were governed by the necessity of moving up and down between Cape Town and Pretoria. In Pretoria they combined to present Distinguished Gathering and she also featured on radio, presenting the programme Song of Joy and featuring in Christopher Fry’s A Phoenix Too Frequent (1949) together with Minna Millsten. She also became the announcer for the S.A. Wool Board’s fashion presentations, where her “beautifully modulated voice” stood her in good stead. At some stage she may also have been an elocution teacher at Maitland High School in Cape Town.

After 1954 her husband was often stationed overseas, first in The Hague, then Paris and finally, in 1961, as Director of Information at South Africa House in London. Their daughters, Gillian Lomberg (1942-2011) and Gaby Lomberg (1959-2007), also had successful stage careers. (FO)

Sources

Rand Daily Mail, 17 August 1961

Hatfield, Denis - Cape theatre in the 1940's: reviews of ballet and drama (1967)

Le Roux, André I. & Fourie, Lilla – Filmverlede: geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse speelfilm (1982)

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