MARGOLYES AND DICKENS: MORE BEST BITS | EICC, EDINBURGH
★ ★ ★
“brazenly naughty…”
There is little doubt that Miriam Margolyes is an icon of her generation, less still that her passion for the works of Charles Dickens has been a heart-felt, life-long affair, and yet in Margolyes And Dickens: More Best Bits, there’s a nagging feeling that this, her latest tribute to the Victorian writer, is little more than Dickens by numbers.
That’s not to say it isn’t an entertaining hour. At an ebullient 84 years old, the Oxford-born actor with a penchant for f***ing and c***ing given the opportunity is as captivating as ever, a mischievous twinkle never far from her eyes, and yet at times this production feels flat.
All the stories have been told before, of course, so it could be that. Or perhaps, it’s the book to which she constantly refers; at times it is hard to tell whether the tome is just a prop, though the suspicion has to be its more an aide memoir. Or maybe the passages of Dickens’ work that she chooses to bring to life are the problem; all are predictable and lack any real challenge for the veteran performer of radio, stage and screen.
Better known these days for her out-spoken, provocative and frequently outrageous turns on TV chat shows, documentaries and travelogues, Margolyes never looses her knowing cheekiness throughout the 70 minutes she is on stage. She also proves never more at home than when riffing with her audience. To that end, Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits allows her profer a masterclass in audience interaction.
From the moment she steps on stage it’s a two way conversation, or would have been had the over-enthusiast fan inquiring about her propensity for farting been able to make herself understood. ‘Your diction is fucking terrible’, Margolyes tells her using her best Scottish accent when she finally works out what is being shouted – the already rapturous applause that greeted her entrance continues, extended.
In turn, Margolyes obligingly enjoys a fart before settling down to tell her story, no mean feat when that involves interweaving life experiences from childhood to the present with those of Dickens while performing numerous extracts of his writing, all within the confines of 60 minutes.
It’s a bawdy hour of banter peppered with characters such as Mrs Gamp, Squeers, Oliver Twist, Fagin, Flora Finchley, Miss Havisham, Mr Bumble and Mrs Corney – her joy for performing Dickens’ words is evident even if some of her delivery, notably the gruffer males, is perhaps more of a challenge than it was once.
With laughter never far away, there are moments, however, when Margolyes, who first discovered Dickens at the age of 11, mesmerises. Her reading from Bleak House is quite the most captivating part of the show, in her own words, “Dickens allows me to flower”.
The last ten minutes sees Dan Cooper join the star on stage for a brief Q&A, four questions pre-picked from the audience, it’s another opportunity for Margolyes to do what she does best these days, speak out, challenge and be brazenly naughty… and her audiences loves her for it.
Run ended.
