Theatre review – Shirley Valentine
Natalie Bassingthwaighte breathes fresh life into Shirley Valentine, Willy Russell’s beloved Liverpudlian housewife with her hilarious and deeply moving solo performance of this modern classic.
Shirley Valentine first made her break for freedom from the prison of her marriage on the English stage back in 1986. With the opening of Neil Gooding and Alex Woodward’s new production in Her Majesty’s Theatre last night, Shirley’s wry observations about marriage and motherhood landed with just as much force as they did almost 40 years ago.
Seamlessly weaving wit with wisdom, Willy Russell’s one-woman play is in turn both hilarious and heart-rending. While Valentine is a character best known from the 1989 screen adaptation of the play starring Pauline Collins, in this impressive production Natalie Bassingthwaighte makes Shirley her own. Giving a powerhouse solo performance, Bassingthwaighte traces an utterly convincing character arc from demoralised housewife to self-possessed woman rediscovering her passion for life.
Standing at the stove in her tiny kitchenette, cooking chips and egg on what should be “mince night”, Shirley Bradshaw (nee Valentine) has a secret burning a hole in her handbag. Jane, her best friend, is traveling to Greece for a holiday and has bought Shirley a ticket.
As she fries up the dinner, pressed in by floral wallpaper and the rigid expectations of her husband and family, that plane ticket is the key to breaking free from the claustrophobic routines that dominate her life. Talking to the wall, Shirley weighs her options, sharing anecdotes from her youth and marriage while she gulps white wine with every uncomfortable realisation.
In her sloppy pink jumper and eighties perm, Bassingthwaighte handles both the accent and character with impressive skill, immediately bringing the audience on side and holding them rapt for the entire performance. From Shirley’s initial act of rebellion, giving a vegan-raised dog the mince meant for her husband, we eagerly chart her progress as she gradually rediscovers the feisty and hilarious woman who went missing in the early years of her marriage.
In the first act, it is three weeks until the trip to Greece and we see Shirley look back on her youth and her marriage, wryly analysing what her life has amounted to in her 42 years.
The second act is an emotional rollercoaster. Mere hours before the flight, we hear the upshot of her break from the routine of ‘mince night’ with Joe’s cruel response and her recognition of the prison her marriage has become. She then has her confidence punctured by her daughter, Millandra, only to be reinflated by a gift from a surprising source.
And in the third and final act, sitting beside tumbled Greek columns in the Mediterranean sunshine, a tanned and philosophical Shirley ponders the weight of unused life that most of us carry around.
Director Lee Lewis has shown a sure hand in her direction of this piece, remaining loyal to the original time and tone of the play and trusting the audience to pick up on the modern-day relevance.
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The set and costume design by Simone Romaniuk perfectly evokes the 80s, and while the kitchenette and Shirley’s perm do deliver healthy jolts of nostalgia, her voice, humour and drive to reclaim a lost sense of self still feel completely fresh. The Mediterranean set in the final act is a little more abstract, bright lighting and a backdrop of gently undulating metallic blue tiles providing a feeling of shimmering water and fresh seaside breeze.
While the themes of mid-life self-discovery and rising from oppression are far from new, Shirley’s voice and sardonic observations are just as pithy and relevant today as they were in 1986.
Shirely Valentine is a beautifully written and superbly acted portrait of a woman retaking control of her life, rendered with humour and great affection – a play well deserving of its own mid-life renaissance.
Shirley Valentine continues at Her Majesty’s Theatre until April 6.