Miriam Margolyes at Dymocks, George Street * 6:00pm - Tuesday September 11
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Braced for a Dickens of a tour
Valerie Lawson, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August, 2007
Then Margolyes says something totally unexpected. "The best part of being an entertainer is you feel you've made people happy. What does Tony Blair [then on the brink of retiring] think when he goes to bed? He may think, 'Fifty people died as a result of what I have done.'
"In my personal life everything is happy, but in public life it's shit, isn't it, it's absolutely shit."
A fervent anti-apartheid campaigner in the past, "I'm having my own personal crusade about Israel. I'm Jewish and I'm pro-Palestinian. I am deeply critical of Israel and ashamed by the Israeli Government's strategy.
"I can't support what is going on there, I'm Jewish and this is happening in my name, so to speak.
"I belong to various organisations and I am fronting one of them called Enough, a conglomeration of religious and political groups to try to bring pressure to bear on the British Government. There's little we can do, it's all pissing in wind, [but] I can publicly say what I think and ask people to think about what is happening. I want
Jews to change their attitudes.
"It's quite brave of me, because to criticise Israel is a dangerous business. When The Jewish Chronicle interviewed me they said, 'Why don't you just shut up?' I said, 'I'm 65, about to be 66.'
If I don't tell the truth now, what is my life for?"
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Dickens' women
Daren Pope, Melbourne Star, September 5, 2007
But Margolyes' fervour for performance is equally matched by her passion for social justice. In her own words she's a "bit of a loud mouth on almost everything".
These days, the actor is most outspoken on the Israeli Government's policies in Palestine.
"Ordinary Jews and Arabs just want to get on with life," she says defiantly. "I went to Gaza about 15 years ago and I was very shocked by what I saw and so I do criticise Israel and that is very painful for someone who is a proud and observant Jew as I am," says Margolyes.
"Unfortunately, war suits some people – it becomes convenient, they make money, they have a sense of power and purpose and those are the people that we have to fight.
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