Cast

Synopsis

We all know Shirley Valentines – mousey little women whose lives centre round their homes and the price of food. But here, in this play, is one woman who, with great trepidation, finds the courage to break out of the role in which society has cast her and to become her real self. This very funny, touching and poignant comedy strikes a responsive chord with the majority of women and may also give a few men pause for thought.

Directors Notes

SHIRLEY VALENTINE New readers start here:

A strange heading you may think for introducing a play, but for the members of the audience who know this play only from seeing the film, it may come as a surprise – even a shock – to discover the play has a cast of just one; Shirley Bradshaw, née Valentine, a woman of about forty. All the other characters, portrayed in the film, do not appear; we hear about them from Shirley and the playwright’s (Willy Russell) text. The result is we discover much more about Shirley and the effect the people in her life had upon her. Let the text of the play and Shirley herself stir your imagination into creating what the people in her life were like, the effect they had upon her and what it meant to her – because the story is about her and thousands of other Shirleys around the world,