Now I don’t know about you, but I do admire an actor who can cook egg and chips while delivering a two-hour monologue. Sadly, she didn’t hand the fries round at the interval, but I’ll forgive her for that, as she had other things on her plate.
Like a lot of people, I have seen the film of Willy Russell’s play, but never the stage version on which it was based. It makes a nice change for it to be that way round, rather than see a theatrical work – usually a musical – adapted from a film. The two productions, although obviously sharing the same story, could not have been more different in presentation. Rather than a cast reading like a Who’s Who of British stars, and being set in various locations, most notably a Liverpool semi and a Greek Island, here we had Mina Anwar, on her Tod, speaking direct to the audience, or a wall, or the fridge, or the cooker, or a rock and guess what, it worked so much better.
The story is pretty straightforward in that Shirley Bradshaw, nee Valentine, is a 42 year-old housewife stuck in a very deep rut with her husband, Joe, who expects his dinner to be on the table when he gets home from work every night, after which he does nothing in particular.
Shirley has a friend, Jane, who has ostensibly given up on men and become a feminist after coming home one day only to find her husband in bed with the milkman! She has now got her share of the divorce settlement and decided to go on a trip to a Greek island, buying a ticket for Shirley, to be her companion. This sparks a self-examination on Shirley’s part, as she knows Joe will be set against her going, but she feels the need to have a period of self-indulgence after years of drudgery. All of the incidents which precede the trip are interpreted as reasons she should recapture the spirit of her younger self – only the spirit, mind you, as she is too intelligent to realise that she can’t revert to being twenty-something physically.
Mina Anwar, as Shirley, peeling the spuds with her preferred sous-chef, a glass of wine.
The second Act is set in Greece after Shirley has left without telling Joe, merely leaving him a note. Although off men, Jane has pulled a bloke while still on the flight out and she disappears to his villa on the other side of the island, leaving Shirley to fend for herself. Whilst in a taverna one evening, she asks for her table to be moved to the edge of the sea to fulfil her dream. The bar owner, Costas, obliges and at the end of the evening, walks Shirley back to her hotel. The two arrange to meet the following morning for a trip on his boat. One thing leads to ‘the other’ and they drop anchor, and everything else, to go skinny dipping which is when the holiday becomes more intimate.
Passport and tickets packed – ready to go.
Again, Shirley is aware that this is Costas’s modus operandi towards ladies of a certain age who frequent his premises whilst on holiday, but she is happy to take it for what it is. When the fortnight is up, the women arrive at the airport to fly home, but Shirley turns round, leaving her suitcase on the conveyor belt and returns to the taverna to take Costas up on his offer of a job. When she gets there she explains that she has not come back for him, and he should carry on with his life, whilst she forges a new one for herself.
After receiving a few phone calls from Joe, and telling him that she is not coming back, he flies out to try to persuade her, which is where the story ends.
It is obviously not the story which is the main reason for the play, it is the reawakening of a woman’s feelings for life and relationships with others, but most of all with herself. Being by Willy Russell it is full of brilliant lines which are delivered superbly by Ms Anwar.
The play begins on a Thursday evening when Shirley is cooking the aforementioned dinner of egg and chips for when Joe gets home. She is a bit apprehensive as to what his reaction will be to this, as Thursday is meat night so he will be expecting mince. She had bought the beef but fed it to a friend’s dog as they are vegans and have brought the animal up as a vegetarian. She said the look in its face was worth the aggravation it would cause later. ‘It’s a Blood Hound! If it were meant to be a vegetarian God would have called it a Grapejuice Hound!’ As anticipated, the meal didn’t go well, with Joe pushing the plate across the table and the egg and chips landing in Shirley’s lap. The final straw in her decision to go away with Jane.
The piece, although a monologue, was acted out with Shirley doing imitations of the other characters in the tale. To give you an idea of the variety which that covered, the actors in the film were Alison Steadman, as Jane, Bernard Hill, as Joe, Tom Conti as Costas, Joanna Lumley as Marjorie, her brainy school friend who was now living in utter luxury earning money as a high class prostitute and Julia McKenzie, her snobby neighbour, Gillian. Each one, was effortlessly slipped into.
The work was firmly set in the Eighties in both the sets and the dialogue. The kitchen was a basic version with period correct appliances, and the script making reference to such fads as the F Plan Diet. In this case the ‘F’ didn’t stand for fibre.
Living the dream. A drink at a table on the sea shore.
The main difference between the original production and those which have come since, is that the Bradshaw residence is now in Accrington, Lancashire, rather than Liverpool. This was the first time that Wily Russell has given permission for a change of setting, and it was done as Accrington is the home town of Mina Anwar, so the accent wasn’t forced and it enabled her to pay tribute to the women in a smaller community. She was perfect for the role as, thanks to the Set and Costume Designer, Su Newell, she was able to present the image of frumpy housewife whilst also managing to inject the suggestion of repressed sensuality.
At the end of the show, Ms Anwar gave an impassioned plea for the audience to support live theatre as much as they could, as most of them are charities and central funding is tight at the moment, to say the least. She also gave words of thanks to Director, Lotte Wakeham and her team, for doing such a brilliant job, something which I echo. Although a one-woman show, the Creative and Production Teams comprise twenty-two people.
She said that Willy Russell was only in his mid thirties when he wrote Shirley Valentine and was amazed at the insight he had into the feelings of a middle aged woman. I consulted the programme and discovered that his first job when he left school at the age of 15, was as a ladies’ hairdresser, so I imagine that the inter-client conversations would have given him a fair idea.
Shirley Valentine is an Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Production and runs at Leeds Playhouse until 26th April and is well worth going to see. For further details and to book, please go to https://www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/event/shirley-valentine/
For all shows coming to Leeds Playhouse it is https://www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on/
Feature Image from Leeds Playhouse. Photographs by Craig Fuller.
Tyke It To The Limit 