From the outset we are assured the title of the show is a cheeky reference to one of the great literature loves of her life, Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Miriam reveals a fascinating insight into her love of literature and its characters, along with those things that matter to her most – her parents, her friends and her work...
Margolyes, at last, in full, fruity flight, her soft face and clipped, Oxfordian vowels transformed utterly into Dickensian grotesquerie that, nevertheless, remains ineffably human. This is just one of Margolyes’ great gifts as a performer but it is, probably, the one that most marks her out as one of the great actors of her generation
The Importance of Being Miriam is a showcase of Margolyes’ incredible skills as an actress, mimic, comedian and storyteller and, through a series of her personal tales and observations, we are introduced to a warm and charming personality.
Winning us over with her delightfully self-effacing candour, Margolyes holds court in a gently endearing manner, allowing the stories and excerpts to work their wonder.
If she isn't the best storyteller in the world, she's certainly up there with the best
It’s damn hard to hold an audience’s attention by yourself for 10 minutes let alone an hour and a half, but Margolyes’ majesty with Logan’s language and Dean Bryant’s direction can’t and shouldn’t be underestimated. She plays the character as if she was a Stradivarius, making each note count. The rousing reception she received when she finally exited the stage said it all.
I rather foolishly imagined we had seen it all from Margolyes — her Dickens, her Miss Prism and Professor Sprout, her Madame Arcati and Dora Greenfield, her countless voiceovers and recordings — but her performance in I’ll Eat You Last is an absolute cracker. She is utterly spellbinding.
Her accent is startlingly perfect, her timing is killer and, underneath the ash-blonde wig and hexagonal tinted glasses, Margolyes disappears entirely..............................I’ll Eat You Last is brilliant,bitchy, knock-the-wind-out-of-you funny, and a cracking night at the theatre.
Originally played on Broadway by Bette Midler, Sue is brought to the MTC stage with as much brio as Sue herself, by theatrical (and now national) treasure, Miriam Margolyes. Cheeky, playful and full of gusto, Margolyes slurps, puffs and chews her way through the monologue and Sue’s endless chain of cigarettes, joints, chocolates and tumblers of dark liquor. If facing the intimate Fairfax studio audience is as confronting as she expressed following her encore, then it is certainly hard to tell through the swags of confidence with which she attracts attention on stage.
it’s Margolyes and Mengers – melded into one fantastical over the top ‘Bitch with a Heart of Gold’ – who makes us stand and cheer for more. It doesn’t matter that anyone under 60 won’t know many of the actors she references; we love them because Mengers loved them. This is the best value for money entertainment that MTC has offered in a very long while.