Christine Harris and HIT Productions presents Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
“Shirley Valentine is about a slightly older woman kicking her heels (for good as it turns out) of British ignorance and insularity. It is a brilliant, funny, pathetic evening…Willy Russell has again managed to say something serious in a way that makes the audience fall over laughing.” Daily Express
Shirley Valentine, the award winning play (Best Comedy at the 1988 Laurence Olivier Awards) is a funny yet moving piece of theatre by award winning playwright Willy Russell, the playwright behind the highly successful Educating Rita. Shirley Valentine, starring the highly credentialed Glenda Linscott (Prisoner, Murder Call), is about escape. It takes the form of a monologue by a 42 year old Liverpool mother and housewife, Mrs Joe Bradshaw, before and after a transforming holiday to Greece. Inside Mrs Joe Bradshaw the former Shirley Valentine is longing to emerge. Her self esteem battered by school, marriage and life in general, she finds herself talking to the wall while her husband is out working. She feels that her terribly mundane life has stagnated as she compares scenes in her current life with how she used to live. When her best friend wins an all expenses paid vacation to Greece for two, Shirley grasps the opportunity to head for the sun, leave her current drudgery behind, rediscover herself, follow her dreams and get a new lease on life.
It is a simple and brilliant idea... the profound and perennial point of the comedy is the problem we seem to have contemplating the idea of a woman alone - in a pub, on a beach, in a restaurant. This is what Shirley learns to combat as she unravels her own sexual and social identity. The play is not only funny, it is also moving.
Financial Times
It's a funny, wise and at the same time very moving play.
The Stage
Christine Harris PRODUCER
Jennifer Hagan DIRECTOR
Adam Gardnir DESIGNER
Michele Preshaw LIGHTING DESIGNER
