Charles du Val

Charles du Val (18**- ) a most admired as a transformation artist, but was also a singer, dancer, reciter and mimic. *

Also found as Charles Du-Val

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 Old Mutual Hall, Cape Town, in November 1888.

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