Tag Archives: Shirley Valentine

WHAT’S ON: Pitlochry Festival Theatre Autumn 2022 line up

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Pitlochry Festival Theatre has announced a diverse programme for their Autumn season.

ENOUGH OF HIM

WRITTEN BY: May Sumbwanyambe

DIRECTED BY: Orla O’Loughlin

PRODUCTION COMPANY: A National Theatre of Scotland and Pitlochry Festival Theatre co-production.

PERFORMANCE DATES:  20-29 October then touring till 19 November. Touring till 19 November

VENUE: Studio, Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Based on a true story, Enough of Him, explores the life of Joseph Knight, an African man enslaved by plantation owner Sir John Wedderburn and brought to Scotland to serve in his Perthshire mansion. In a first-time collaboration between the National Theatre of Scotland and Pitlochry Festival Theatre May Sumbwanyambe’s historical domestic drama, directed by Orla O’Loughlin opens in Pitlochry before touring Scotland in October and November 2022.

Highly favoured by Wedderburn and yet still enslaved, Joseph Knight balances on the knife edge between obligation and a soul-deep yearning for freedom. He forges a bond with Annie, a young Scottish servant working in the household, and the two of them fall in love.

But the walls of Ballindean do not keep secrets — their affair unsettles Lady Wedderburn, whose bitter loneliness is only deepened by the close bond her husband has with Knight. Joseph will endure bondage no longer. What happens when Joseph’s dreams clash with those of the man who owns him? What becomes of us all when past brutalities bleed into our present realities?

Enough of Him is a thrilling exploration of power and its attendant tensions: between those who are enslaved and those who are free, servants and masters, and husbands and wives.

SHIRLEY VALENTINE

WRITTEN BY: Willy Russell

DIRECTED BY Elizabeth Newman

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

PERFORMANCE DATES: 13-29 October

VENUE: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Shirley Valentine is a celebration of women, freedom and what it means to find yourself again. We meet Shirley, a bored, middle-aged wife and mother, when she’s contemplating what has happened to her youth, feeling stagnant and in a rut. Her children are all grown up and she frequently talks to the wall in her kitchen while preparing her husband’s regular evening meal of egg and chips. When her best friend offers to pay for a trip for two to Greece, she packs her bags, leaves a note on the cupboard door in the kitchen, and heads off for a fortnight of rest and relaxation. In Greece, she meets Costas, rediscovers herself, finds happiness, and everything she has been missing.  She realises that there is more to life than the dull, mundane existence she leads back home.  So now, Shirley has a big decision to make.

PETER PAN AND WENDY

WRITTEN BY: Janys Chambers (North & South, Pitlochry Festival Theatre), adapted from the novel by J.M.Barrie

DIRECTED BY Ben Occhipinti

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

DATES: 18 November – 23 December

VENUE: Main House, Pitlochry Festival Theatre

A new adaptation by Janys Chambers of J.M. Barrie’s magical story about a boy who can fly and doesn’t want to grow up. One starry night, bedtime stories come alive for Wendy Darling and her younger brothers John and Michael when they meet Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and fly with them to Neverland – ‘second star to the right and straight on till morning’.  They find themselves on a thrilling adventure far from home where they make friends with the Lost Boys, meet the evil pirate Captain Hook and his motley crew, and encounter a very noisy crocodile.

 

Title image: Julias Cardew

REVIEW: Shirley Valentine – King’s Theatre, Glasgow

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jodie prenger against a greek seaside background

Willy Russell’s track record of successfully writing about ordinary women is almost unparalleled in popular theatre: Educating Rita, Blood Brothers and this, his 1986 effort Shirley Valentine, have repeatedly touched the hearts of the nation in both stage and film versions.

Shirley Bradshaw (Jodie Prenger) is 42, with two teenage kids who have flown the nest, an emotionally distant husband, her day to day existence leaving her resigned to (literally) talking to the egg-yolk yellow walls of her pine-clad kitchen. When her best friend offers to pay for a well-needed holiday for the pair, Shirley jumps at the chance to escape.

In the 30 years that have passed since it was written, much has changed, and women have come a long way. Despite a few dated references, and the fact that at 42, an age when many women in 2017 are only starting to contemplate having a family, 1980’s Shirley feels washed up and unable to escape her situation, Russell’s script has largely weathered the years well. That he can wring so much humour and pathos from the life of a working class Liverpudlian housewife, is a testament to his talent. It is in turn touching, resonant and laugh-out-loud funny.

That said, it’s not without fault. Essentially a 16000-word monologue, the weight of the production’s success is set firmly on the shoulders of the lead. Here, Prenger can’t rely on her impressive singing voice. Shirley’s cheeky chat and charisma, coupled with Prenger’s vivacity and heightened characterisation make it hard to believe that she doesn’t have the confidence to leave her dreary life behind. However, Prenger’s natural warmth transmits brilliantly to the audience, making us forgive her less than on-point Liverpool accent, and the audience is never not rooting for her every step of her journey.

Amy Yardley’s set design is simple, the 80s kitchen familiar to anyone who lived through the decade. Less successful is the rendering of the sun-drenched Greek island, the azure blue Mediterranean Sea more plastic camping tarpaulin than lapping waves. That said, it’s the words that matter, and those are glorious.

There’s enough here to still resonate with an audience in 2017; it’s a perfect balance of thought-provoking, self-searching, inspirational and life-affirming. It will make you, as Russell says in his script, “fall in love with the idea of living.” A British theatre classic and deservedly so.

Runs until 6 May 2017 | Image: Manuel Harlan

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR THE REVIEWS HUB HERE