When Kate Alexander directed Susan Greenhill last season as the frumpy conservative Haddie in "...And L.A. is Burning," I wrote that the two were becoming a first-class FST team, bringing out what's deeper in women characters than seen on the surface. With Shirley Valentine, the team scores again, sending an empty-nest wife, too long bound to routine and house like a prisoner in limbo, on a voyage of self-rediscovery.
As Shirley prepares eggs and chips (expertly!) for husband Joe's return from work, she sips wine. Wishing she could do so in "a country where the grapes are grown," she mulls over feminist pal Jane's invitation to share a prize fortnight in Greece. It could be a lifelong dream come true. Greenhill's personification of midlife crisis comes on with mousy unstyled hair and old fashioned apron over brown everything. "You don't start again at 42, do you?" she asks, then proceeds to set up reasons why she's questioning now: Freudian sexual enhancement theories, Joe's hating travel, dislike of what's become of herself, talking mainly to her kitchen wall. How she dreads telling Joe what happened to his usual weekly steak!
When Shirley actually gets to Corfu and is left to herself, she talks to a rock on the beach. But she's stylish and glowing. She glories in a sexual idyl with a taverna owner, though she recognizes it wasn't true love but real life that he connected her to. How can Shirley Valentine leave her regained identity, if she gets on that return plane? What will happen if Joe comes really into her dream-come-true by the sea?
Despite its serious questioning, Willy Russell's play is full of comic one-liners and descriptions of Shirley's life and friends. Her funniest stories recreate a teatime meeting with a former schoolmate as well as her son, as a child, acting Joseph in a Nativity play. Greenhill does her best when animating such stories, though she's no slouch at plain narration. Director Kate Alexander stresses the parts of the play that don't show its age. Her excellent blocking assures it isn't static.
Scenic designer Lauren Feldman provides a terrifically detailed kitchen full of green and cream cabinets with working stove, fridge, and sink. David M. Upton's lighting turns all properly dull. Both designers make the beach scene under bright blue sky a fine contrast, with a sand-covered stage (of canvas) and giant rocks bleached by the sun. Marcella Beckwith supplies Shirley's appropriate costumes.
Will Shirley Valentine go over with those who've seen it before on stage or film? Or with new audiences? FST gives all a chance to decide, sin ce the play has already been extended past its originally planned closing.
