"Everyone loves a good story and no-one wrote them quite as beautifully, insightfully and downright hilariously as Herman Charles Bosman", says blonde Barbie Meyer with a passionate twinkle in her eye.

After seeing Patrick Mynhardt transformed into Oom Schalk on the stage and hearing him tell Bosman’s intrinsically South African short stories, Barbie Meyer never quite saw the world in the same way again. “Quite simply I was hooked from an early age” she laughs.

One senses that the Bosman stories that Meyer performs will be filled with hilarity, beauty, passion, irony and wit - words which Meyer constantly uses to describe his work.

The good news is that Meyer has teamed up with Roland Stansell of Rhumbelow Theatre in planning what will be Durban’s own Bosman Festival. The festival will be an annual event presented this year on the weekends of the 23rd to 25th July and 30th to 1st August.

In her previous shows the veld maiden herself, Barbie Meyer, has been able to bring to life and give a balanced and highly palatable assortment of Bosman’s short stories, essays and poetry. Tasty titbits about Bosman’s Bohemian and rather controversial life have been cleverly woven into each play.

For Bosman fans and the uninitiated alike, the Durban Bosman Festival comes highly recommended.

Three different Bosman shows will be presented. All works have been directed by the evergreen and highly talented Bets Basson - so expect near perfect comic timing and seamless performances.

The shows which have been selected for the Durban Festival include the following:

Bosman’s Veld Maiden
This is Meyer’s latest offering. Alluring Marico ghosts, countless bottles of mampoer and elusive romances – both funny and enthralling - this is undoubtedly South African storytelling at its best!
Directed by Bets Basson. Featuring Barbie Meyer.

Bosman’s Women
Three wives and a bohemian lifestyle – Herman Charles Bosman’s private life was decidedly thorny. Some called him a genius others called him a criminal but one certainty was that it was intoxicating being a Bosman woman – in or out of his stories!
Directed by Bets Basson. Featuring Barbie Meyer & Lorna Burd.

Leopards & Liars
Brace yourselves for some hilarious storytelling which will make you giggle when you really know you shouldn’t. These two sassy women will delight and surprise you with the extraordinary life and works of one of South Africa’s literary masters: Herman Charles Bosman.
Directed by Bets Basson. Featuring Barbie Meyer & Lorna Burd.