Harry Potter teacher gives master class in Dickens
Miriam Margolyes masterfully weaves facts and fiction into her one- woman show
Dickens’ Women Nov. 15- Dec 1 | The Cultch Tickets/ information: www. thecultch. com
Miriam Margolyes’ solo show Dickens’ Women has picked up so many accolades touring the world en route to its Canadian premiere at the Cultch Thursday night that it was a safe bet it would delight anyone familiar with the iconic British author. The only question was whether non- Dickens fans would feel welcome.
But Margolyes, who “devised” and co- wrote the show with director Sonia Fraser, crafted an elegant entry to the world of a writer who fascinates her, but whom she quickly kicks off his pedestal, making it very clear that the author — who would have turned 200 this year — was an often petty man haunted by his own ghosts of Christmases past.
Dickens’ Women is a combination of the author’s biography, focusing on his often dysfunctional relationships with the women in his life, and a revue featuring 23 characters ranging from the classic ( Miss Havisham from Great Expectations and Mrs. Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit), to the obscure ( Miss Mowcher, David Copperfield’s clever dwarf manicurist, who was rescued from an early serialized version of the story that was later Bowdlerized to soothe the feelings of the woman who inspired it.)
The strength of the piece as dramatic writing — and the hidden treasure for Dickens fans — is that Margolyes weaves the biography with the fictions, discussing the inspirations for the characters and the tragic root of the author’s “icky” obsession with perfect “little” 17- year- old girls.
And there are definitely a lot of Dickens fans out there, especially back in the motherland. In 2007 Chatham in Kent opened Dickens World, a $ 98- million theme park with such thrilling attractions as The Haunted House of Ebenezer Scrooge and The Great Expectations Boat Ride. Yes, really.
But the strength of Dickens’ Women is the performance, not the play.
Margolyes played Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — she was the head mistress of Hufflepuff and ran the Hogwarts Herbology Department — and when the BAFTA- award- winning actress stepped on stage at the Cultch she looked like a Harry Potter character, simultaneously larger and smaller than life. With wonderfully expressive eyes, a head of wild white hair and wearing what she described offstage after the show as, “a Victorian trouser suit,” Margolyes looked like she could have been crafted in a special effects shop.
Margolyes is the kind of classically trained performer whose body is their instrument, and the tiny, sprout- like 71- year- old has perfect control of that instrument, moving every part of her body, her face, even her hair, with the
With wonderfully expressive eyes, a head of wild white hair and wearing what she described offstage after the show as, ‘ a Victorian trouser suit,’ Margolyes looked like she could have been crafted in a special effects shop.
same precision she brings to shifting accents and attitudes as she perfectly articulates the language of Dickens.
And Margolyes is quite literally the female voice of Dickens in England. She appeared in a small- screen adaptation of Oliver Twist, recorded audio book versions of Oliver Twist and Great Expectations and hosted the 10part BBC documentary series Dickens in America.
A piano player sets a classical, formal tone for the evening and also anchors the very simple set which consists of a small collection of chairs, a throne, and a podium modelled after the one Dickens himself used when he was on the speaking circuit ( which paid him a lot more than his writing did). The lighting was simple, effective and often completed the transformations as Margolyes shifted from her own charming self to a fluttery teenage girl, a blushing matron, a self- aggrandizing dwarf, a self- possessed lesbian and a collection of scheming, conniving and occasionally inspiring women.
The biographical nuggets Margolyes shares aren’t exactly scandalous by modern standards, but they’re not the types of anecdotes Dickens would have allowed into an authorized biography. Dickens was positively Scrooge- like when he dumped his first wife and he seemed to have a thing for young sisters- in- law.
Margolyes says on stage she doesn’t believe those relationships were sexual, but they were obsessive and appear to have provided the inspirations for several famous characters.
There’s a moment during the show where Margolyes pops out of a Dickens character, smiles warmly at the audience and declares, “I love doing that.” And whether that line is scripted or not — and it probably is — that love of her subject is clearly real and constantly shines through.