Review: Miriam & The Monkfish

What else was Miriam to do, but shove the kaffir lime leaves in her pocket and make a run for it? Through the city, across the Harbour Bridge, right back to Mosman, “where I belong” ... pursued the whole way by Mr Hoi Sin, exhorting her to “give me back my weaves”.

After all, the hapless North Shore socialite has wandered completely out of her comfort zone to enter unknown territory in the wilds of Surry Hills to buy the ingredients for an Asian-inspired dinner that was as important to saving her husband’s business prospects as she was inept at preparing it.

And then there was the further unknown territory of not enough money in her purse and insufficient funds in the hole in the wall. And she really did desperately need those kaffir lime leaves ...

Sophie Kelly, who co-wrote the script with director Tessa King, and plays Miriam, shows a distinct touch of Joanna Lumley’s Patsy in her mannerisms and facial expressions, and there’s a hint, too, of Gina Riley and Jane Turner in their shop-assistant cameos in Kath and Kim.

She’s the real comedy deal — excellent verbal delivery, great timing, a face that can deliver a hundred lines with a raised eyebrow or worried pout, the slapstick skills to improvise gloriously when a stray piece of food misses its target and metaphorically hits the fan.

Miriam and the Monkfish provides Kelly with a great vehicle for her talents. Pretty in pink and gorgeously made up — at least at the start of this one-hour solo cooking show — she is the perfect desperate North Shore housewife, much more used to being cooked for than cooking.

She mercilessly sends up the celebrity chefs, takes calorie-counting to new limits, and, quite innocently, lampoons society itself. The final scene, where Miriam casts off the calorie muzzle and literally stuffs her face is riotous.

“Please don’t,” implored someone in the audience as cheeks swelled to bursting. And for a moment my mind did flash to Clive James’ Unreliable Memoirs and the catastrophic events that unfolded on the staircase of the double-decker bus after the Royal Easter Show.

Miriam and the Monkfish is full of gross political incorrectness, stereotypical prejudices, obvious but cleverly delivered sexual double entendres, and acts of culinary indecency ... but it’s very, very funny.

And the venue, the Old Fitzroy Hotel in Woolloomooloo, is a great, old inner-city pub that pours an excellent ale and serves a fine laksa.

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THE OLD FITZROY HOTEL

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