REVIEW: Shirley Valentine is a funny, charming delight

By Peter Cargill

October 20 2022, 5:30pm

Sally Reid as Shirley Valentine.

Playwright, composer, lyricist — Willy Russell’s all-round talents often involve heroines.

Rita, Mrs Johnstone (tissues should be issued free with every Blood Brothers programme) and Shirley have all had critics dusting off their book of superlatives.

And, now, Shirley Valentine’s defiant ‘trip to Greece’ has come to Pitlochry in a joint production with An Tobar and Mull Theatre.

Add Sally Reid to the list

While every aficionado will put Pauline Collins on a pedestal as the original Shirley in London and on Broadway and film, you can add former Perth Youth Theatre actress Sally Reid to the hall of Shirley fame.

It’s as far away from her famed PC Sarah Fletcher in BBC TV’s Scots Squad as you can get —broad Liverpudlian accent notwithstanding.

Clever lighting shifts the scene from kitchen to Greece in Shirley Valentine.

Poor Shirley is stuck in her humdrum life with Joe, whose meal of egg and chips is the highlight of the day.

At home, Shirley prefers to vent her spleen and frustrations in conversation with the kitchen wall. In fact, it’s her only option.

In a desire to get out of the boredom of her current situation, she wrestles with her conscience when the opportunity comes for a trip to Greece with her best friend.

A note is left on the table — “Gone to Greece, back in two weeks.” But will she come home again?

High on personality

It is a mark of his genius, that Mr Russell’s plethora of one-liners has stood the test of time and just as funny and relevant today.

While this monologue may be low on personnel, it is high on personality as the 42-year-old Shirley shakes off Mrs Bradshaw’s dull persona to relive the youthful vitality of Miss Valentine.

Pitlochry’s artistic director Elizabeth Newman and designer Emily James have crafted a delight of a production, with clever lighting effects by Jeanine Byrne, to convey the contrast between a suburban kitchen and getting the sand between the toes on a Greek shoreline.

Shirley Valentine is at Pitlochry until October 29. Conveying the heat of the Grecian sun will test Ms Reid’s acting skills when she goes island-hopping to Iona and Mull in November.