Shirley Valentine

From the company that brought you Tell Me On A Sunday comes the celebrated one-woman play Shirley Valentine written by Willy Russell. This moving and influential comedy won Russell his third Olivier Award; the previous two being for Educating Rita and Blood Brothers.

Trailblazing Shirley has been changing women's lives ever since the 42-year-old working class Liverpudlian housewife first appeared, talking to the wall while making eggs and chips for dinner.

Wise, funny and always acerbic, she started her life full of passion and promise, but this spirit has been eroded by years of putdowns, a loveless marriage, domineering children and forced complacency. The closest she comes to a conversation is telling the kitchen wall, “It's a good job we're not having soup, or else I'd put me head in it and drown meself.”

When her flamboyant friend Jane wins a trip for two to Greece, Shirley uncharacteristically puts herself first and accepts Jane's invitation to join her in the land of olive trees, tavernas and sun-drenched beaches. Joe will have to cook his own dinner.

Much has changed for women since Shirley Valentine was first performed, but her poignant question, “Why do you get all this life, when it can’t be used?” remains as pertinent today as ever. Her journey to living her life again is driven by the continual push and pull between her sarcastic zest and her melancholic longing for a different way of seeing and being seen by her world.