Dickens’ Women

Dickens’ Women
By Miriam Magolyes and Sonia Fraser. Glen Street Theatre (NSW). February 3 – 12, 2012, then touring Australia and New Zealand.

Miriam Magolyes does not disappoint in this new tour of the production she, and co-writer and director Sonia Fraser, first developed for the Edinbugh Festival in 1989. She is as effervescent and professional as ever. Her twinkling eyes, expressive face and perfectly controlled movement and gesture hypnotise her already expectant audience and keep them entertained, and informed, for the entire performance. A ‘one hander’ is not easy. And this, which requires so many changes of character, could become confusing, but in her very experienced hands, it is never that.

Re-vamped for another world tour (this is the second time it has toured  Australia and New Zealand), it is celebrating the bi-centenary of the birth of Charles Dickens. But Dickens’ Women pulls no punches about the man himself, who, Margolyes sees as “a surprising man … much crueller than people expect”.

Interwoven with the twenty three of Dickens’ characters that Margolyes brings to very vivid life on the stage, she and Fraser present a telling biography of the writer himself. There is his history: childhood poverty; his family’s imprisonment for failure to repay a loan of forty pounds; working at 12 years old in a boot black factory; and his struggle out of ‘the lower middle class’ of 19th century London to eventual recognition and fame. There is the man himself: ever mindful of the poverty, hardship and cruelty he has seen;  publishing them so cleverly in his writings; yet in his own marriage almost as cruel and unfeeling as those he depicts.

With very careful selection of material, Fraser and Margolyes have chosen characters that portray the man, his family, his failings and his great and lasting talent. They have linked these with clever transitions which are informative yet entertaining, and show tight writing and redrafting.  Never is either biographical detail or actual characterisation too long. Never does the audience get an opportunity to lose interest. Humour and drama are inextricably mixed – and in the hands of such an experienced and vivacious performer, the characters and Dickens himself come to vibrant life.

Margolyes holds the audience from the moment she comes onto the stage. For so diminutive a figure, her stage presence is consuming. She breaks from the applause following her first characterisation to say “I’m Miriam Margolyes”, (as if we didn’t know!) and proceeds to talk to us as if she has known us all her life. That ability, to move from raconteur to performer, is a rare talent, and she has it one hundred fold. Through the many colourful characters she embodies, male and female, her facial expressions, gesture, pace and timing are immaculate. Those that remain with me most strongly are the double interpretation of Mr Bumble and Mrs Corney (Oliver Twist). Both are strong, funny, cringingly Dickens! As is the depiction of Miss Havershem, especially as she pleads with Pip to “love her, love her”.

The production itself, obviously well-tried through its past international tours (the US, UK, India, Jerusalem), is tight and ready to travel! A simple set is dominated by a throne-type chair, a replica of Dickens’ reading desk, a grand piano and overlooked by a portrait of the author himself. Australian pianist John Martin provides musical introductions and atmospheric links, always present but never obtrusive. Mark Hammer’s lighting is carefully and cleverly designed, especially as the performance closes – an almost ‘Ahh’ moment!

For those who love Dickens, or Margolyes; for those who want to introduce their children or students to Dickens; for those who just enjoy theatre for itself, this is a fine production.

Carol Wimmer

Images: Prudence Upton.

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