Words : Violet Del Toro
Image: Steve Ullathorne

5 Stars

Miriam Margolyes walks on stage to thundering applause. “I won’t introduce myself,” she announces, “Because if you don’t know who I am, what the f*** are you doing here.”

At 84, Miriam commands the stage in a wild, at times raunchy, always hilarious and buoyant performance. It is the best kind of storytelling as she weaves her own history with passages of Charles Dickens’ great stories. She embodies character after character, changing voice and expression with ease and gusto.

The final fifteen minutes of the show is a Q&A with audience members able to ask absolutely anything. Her responses are uproariously honest and still, heartfelt and warm: in response to one question, she calls Donald Trump a d**k, dangerous and selfish and expresses sorrow for people in the United States who are marginalised and scared. To a question about how to be confident in ourselves, Miriam encourages audience members to
know your worth and that no one is exactly like you. One question asks her to recount the whole and true story of the man w****ing in a tree in The Meadows – it’s outrageous and mad, so if you want to hear it, you’ll have to go see the show.

At the end, Miriam acknowledges that the world is in a bit of a dark place right now, but she hopes that by seeing her perform at 84, ‘barely f*****ng able to walk’ on this grand stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – gives us hope that just about anything is possible.

She is wildly hilarious, bold and warm. I hope I grow up to be her one day.

Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits
Venue 150b Pentland Theatre at Pleasance at EICC
18.00
9 – 24 August