Theatre review: Shirley Valentine
A week on and it's back to the Menier Chocolate Factory, this time with cjg1 in tow, for the second half of the Willy Russell double bill: Glen Walford, who also directed the first-ever production, directs Meera Syal as Shirley Valentine. Downtrodden wife and mother Shirley Bradshaw feels like she's missed out on life, and has resorted to talking to the kitchen wall. But one too many uncaring acts by her husband lead her to go on a two-week holiday to a Greek island without telling him. Once there, will she rediscover Shirley Valentine, the completely different woman she believes she was before she got married and changed her name, and will she even go home once the holiday's over?
Of the two revivals I found this by far the strongest. The central premise should feel more dated than it does (her husband sounds like an arsehole but he's not actually physically abusive either, so it's hard to see why the once-vivacious Shirley turned into a virtual prisoner in her own kitchen) but Syal's sympathetic performance makes you go along with it. Having such an accomplished comedy actor in the role means every line is timed perfectly, and she gets a lot of laughs with some pathos thrown in. Less successful is her Liverpool accent; I found it a shame they hadn't tweaked the script to allow Syal to use her own accent, as apart from a couple of the more dated jokes there's no reason Shirley couldn't be a Brummie. Still, her concentration on the rest of the performance was as it should be, and if one element's going to not be quite right I'd rather it was the accent than something more important like the timing. (In the opening scene she also has to worry about simultaneously acting while cooking real egg and chips: Fortunately I'd been warned, and Christopher and I had both made sure we'd eaten before seeing the show. Being in the front row meant even on a full stomach those chips smelt good, I'm glad I didn't have to smell them when I was hungry. During a scene change a stage-hand got a round of applause for spraying air-freshener to put us all out of our misery.)
One of my favourite things about monologues is how you can play with the idea of the story being told unreliably, because you're only getting one person's side of it. Russell doesn't really go all-out with this (there's no real reason to think that things didn't happen the way Shirley describes them) but he does give hints that life back in Liverpool doesn't have to be as stifling as it is at the start, and a major part of Shirley's journey of self-discovery is realising that as much as her husband has sapped the life from her, she's done the same to him. While there's still a feel of the period piece about the play, having a strong performer to carry the two-hour monologue means it doesn't feel like an unecessary revival.
Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell is booking until the 8th of May at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
Of the two revivals I found this by far the strongest. The central premise should feel more dated than it does (her husband sounds like an arsehole but he's not actually physically abusive either, so it's hard to see why the once-vivacious Shirley turned into a virtual prisoner in her own kitchen) but Syal's sympathetic performance makes you go along with it. Having such an accomplished comedy actor in the role means every line is timed perfectly, and she gets a lot of laughs with some pathos thrown in. Less successful is her Liverpool accent; I found it a shame they hadn't tweaked the script to allow Syal to use her own accent, as apart from a couple of the more dated jokes there's no reason Shirley couldn't be a Brummie. Still, her concentration on the rest of the performance was as it should be, and if one element's going to not be quite right I'd rather it was the accent than something more important like the timing. (In the opening scene she also has to worry about simultaneously acting while cooking real egg and chips: Fortunately I'd been warned, and Christopher and I had both made sure we'd eaten before seeing the show. Being in the front row meant even on a full stomach those chips smelt good, I'm glad I didn't have to smell them when I was hungry. During a scene change a stage-hand got a round of applause for spraying air-freshener to put us all out of our misery.)
One of my favourite things about monologues is how you can play with the idea of the story being told unreliably, because you're only getting one person's side of it. Russell doesn't really go all-out with this (there's no real reason to think that things didn't happen the way Shirley describes them) but he does give hints that life back in Liverpool doesn't have to be as stifling as it is at the start, and a major part of Shirley's journey of self-discovery is realising that as much as her husband has sapped the life from her, she's done the same to him. While there's still a feel of the period piece about the play, having a strong performer to carry the two-hour monologue means it doesn't feel like an unecessary revival.
Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell is booking until the 8th of May at the Menier Chocolate Factory.