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.  He has also worked in many of the UK’s regional theatres.

‘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

In 2019 he played Father Flavia in OUR LADY OF KIBEHO by Katori Hall, at the Royal Theatre, Northampton and at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London.

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 perhaps best known as an award-winning performer of his own original solo plays for theatre and radio.

More information about THIS EVIL THING, his most recent solo play (2016), which has now been performed by him over 100 times in many venues in the UK and in the eastern USA, can be found on other pages of this website.

His first solo play, 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.

MICHAEL MEARS’ ESSENTIAL THEATRE…is an umbrella term for his productions going forward.  In 2022, THE MISTAKE, his postponed play about Hiroshima and the first atomic bomb, a play for two people, was finally mounted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that August.  It  has now played in London and is due to tour UK-wide in the autumn of 2023.  Go to other pages on this website https://wordpress.com/page/michaelmears.org/2271 for more info.