Charles du Val

Charles du Val (1846-1889) was a 19th century solo performer and transformation artist.

Also found as Charles Du-Val

Biography

Born in Manchester, England in 1810 of Irish parents.

Du Val and his business manager and long-time associate, Arthur Fry, arrived in Cape Town at the end of 1879. They toured South Africa until 1881, when they were interrupted by the siege of Pretoria during the First Anglo-Boer War.

The two, who had been joined by the Pole Checheffski in Port Elizabeth, arrived in Pretoria on18 November 1880. They joined the Pretoria Carabineers, also known as D’Arcy Horse. In December, Du Val was attached to the staff of the British garrison commandant Lt.-Col. G. F. Gildea of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. On 25 December 1880, a news-sheet called News of the Camp,with a circulation of 500, was published with Du Val as editor, assisted by Charles W. Deecker. The paper was distributed thrice weekly and the last edition was printed on the press of De Volksstem and published on 9 April 1881. Du Val took part in the skirmishes at Sesmylspruit, Swartkoppies, and Elandsfontein during the siege of Pretoria by the Boer commandos.

In April 1881, the company departed for Kimberly where they resumed their performances after an interval of five months. Before Du Val’s return to England, he lectured in Cape Town on the war. He wrote With a show through Southern Africa, and personal reminiscences of the Transvaal War (2 vol.,1882), which remains a valuable source of information about South Africa, the war and the siege of Pretoria.

Du Val returned to England some time after 1882.

He most admired as a transformation artist, but was also a singer, dancer, reciter and mimic

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He and his wife toured South Africa for two years in the late 1870s and beginning of the 1880s with his one-man show Odds and Ends, claiming to have visited every “ dorp” (= town) in the process. Twenty two of the shows were done in Cape Town, travelled to Kimberly for 20 performances in the Theatre Royal. On to Bloemfontein, Middelburg, Senekal, reaching Pretoria at the start of the first Anglo-Boer war in 1880, where he was asked to perform in the camp. Also performed in Durban and later came to Tarkastad and Port Elizabeth, before they headed for home. His chronicle of his journey (With a Show Through Southern Africa) is a valuable resource on touring theatre conditions at the time.

According to Boonzaier, he apparently also performed in the Mutual Hall, Cape Town, in November 1888, though this is surely a mistake.

Sources

Charles du Val. 1882. With a Show Through Southern Africa. And Personal Reminiscences of the Transvaal War (Volume 1) London : Tinsley Brothers.(Facsimile version, HathiTrust Digital Library)[1]

Charles du Val. 1882. With a Show Through Southern Africa. And Personal Reminiscences of the Transvaal War (Volume 2) London : Tinsley Brothers. (Facsimile version, HathiTrust Digital Library)[[2]

Charles du Val in South African History Online (SAHO)[3]

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p. 396.

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