Michael Mears has had a rich and varied career in theatre, television and film – including seasons with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Peter Hall Company, portraying many classical and Shakespearean roles.
‘An actor both gifted and unselfish … Mears gives the most inventive reading of Malvolio’s letter scene since Olivier himself.’ The Observer – reviewing ATC’s production of Twelfth Night
He has also performed in London’s West End on a number of occasions, most notably for nine months as Arthur Kipps in the long-running hit The Woman In Black.
In 2016, he toured in English Touring Theatre’s production of Peter Whelan’s The Herbal Bed, playing the inquisitorial Vicar-General, for which he was critically acclaimed.
‘The most vivid performance is from the chilling Michael Mears, as the wily puritanical and dangerous deputy.’ Evening Standard
Television roles include Rifleman Cooper in the first six Sharpe films, and Alex Kozoblis in two series of The Lenny Henry Show.
On film he will be remembered as the Hotel Barman who brings Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell together in Four Weddings And A Funeral.
SOLO WORK
But Michael Mears is best known as an award-winning performer of his own original solo plays for theatre and radio.
Tomorrow We Do The Sky, about the lives of factory canteen workers, premiered at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1991, and was nominated for the Independent Theatre Award, and Time Out Theatre Award, before playing in London, on tour, and subsequently being broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
This was followed by Soup, his Scotsman Fringe First Award winning solo play about homelessness, which garnered five star reviews and had a sell out three week run at the Pleasance in 1995. Michael was also nominated for the Stage Best Actor Award at that year’s festival. Soup also played in London, on tour, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
A Slight Tilt To The Left played at the Assembly Rooms in 2002, and this play, as well as four other solo plays, Slow Train To Woking, Uncle Happy, Jam and Arnold Darwin’s Feeling Better, were all specially commissioned for BBC Radio, and have been performed by him on Radio 4.
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