Willy Russell’s witty and poignant monologue is currently on its 30th anniversary UK tour, with Jodie Prenger playing the part of the mother and wife who grabs the opportunity to go to Greece for ‘sun, sea and taramasalata’.
When we first meet her she’s preparing a meal of chips and egg for her husband Joe, while talking to the wall and to us about this opportunity to go abroad with her friend Jane, and about her children Malandra and Brian, and her old schoolfriend Marjorie who has grown wealthy travelling the world as a hooker.
Jodie Prenger, photo by Manuel Harlan
Shirley Bradshaw, as she is now, has no time for adventure, and has seen the romance slowly decline from her marriage. Her daughter takes her for granted, and her son has become something of a dropout (the story about his Nativity play appearance is a hoot). She wonders where the girl she once was has gone and finds herself, at 42, afraid of ‘the life beyond the wall’.
Act 1 introduces these main characters, plus next-door neighbour, nosy Gillian. Prenger gives Shirley a believable voice, although her accent wavers now and then. In her very detailed 80s kitchen, with the dated decor she and Joe painted a lifetime ago when they were in love, splashing each other with paint and then washing it off together in the bath, she confides that she is now ignored and although Joe claims he loves her, he’d hardly notice if she wasn’t there.
By Act 2, she’s got her suitcase packed and is ready for Greece in an eye-poppingly awful hat and suit. There’s a story about her temptation to buy M&S scanties and shocking Gillian with a tall tale about a lover, which her neighbour believes, dropping off a silk robe for Shirley to wear on holiday.
Jodie Prenger, photo by Manuel Harlan
Act 3 is in Greece, where Shirley has swapped her wall for a rock to talk to, and has discovered love while skinny dipping with Costas from the local taverna (‘I call him Christopher Columbus’). It’s a holiday fling, as transient as the dream she has of sitting and drinking wine by the sea, but slowly the confidence returns and Shirley Valentine, as she once was, overshadows Mrs Bradshaw.
There are laugh out loud moments in this clever play (‘Gooey’ being one of them, and the anecdote about the stretch marks another), but I found the ending rather sad in a way, as we guess that Shirley may eventually go back to England and home and family, and go back to the life of cooking for Joe and talking to the wall. Is her Greek adventure simply a middle-aged fantasy?
