Shirley Valentine
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Shirley Valentine is a play by Willy Russell.
Taking the form of a monologue by a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife, it focuses on her life before and after a transforming vacation. Wondering what happened to herself, now feeling stagnant and in a rut, Shirley finds herself regularly talking to the wall while preparing her husband's chips 'n' egg, until her best friend wins a trip-for-two to Greece. Without a second thought, she packs her bags, leaves a note on the kitchen table, and heads for a fortnight of rest and relaxation. What she finds is romance and a new awareness of who she is and what her existence can be with just a little effort on her part.
Commissioned by the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, the play premiered in 1986, with Noreen Kershaw directed by Glen Walford. Two years later it opened in London's West End at the Vaudeville Theatre, with Pauline Collins, directed by Simon Callow.
After eight previews, the Broadway production, with Collins again directed by Callow, opened on February 16, 1989 at the Booth Theatre, where it ran for 324 performances. Ellen Burstyn replaced Collins later in the run.
Loretta Swit starred in a US national tour in 1995.
Russell adapted his play for the 1989 film version directed by Lewis Gilbert. Collins reprised her stage role, and the characters to whom Shirley merely had referred on stage were portrayed by Tom Conti, Alison Steadman, Joanna Lumley, Bernard Hill, and Sylvia Sims. The film was shot on Mykonos, one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea.
[edit] Awards and nominations
- Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy (winner)
- Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress (winner)
- Tony Award for Best Play (nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (winner)
- Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut (winner)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play (nominee)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play (winner)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play (nominee)
- Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (winner)
- Academy Award for Best Actress (nominee)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, Comedy or Musical (nominee)
- BAFTA for Best Film Actress (winner)
- BAFTA for Best Screenplay (winner)
[edit] External links
| Lewis Gilbert | |
|---|---|
| James Bond | You Only Live Twice (1967) | The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) | Moonraker (1979) |
| 1940s | Ten Year Plan | Under One Roof | Arctic Harvest | The Little Ballerina |
| 1950s | Once a Sinner | There Is Another Sun | The Scarlet Thread | Time Gentlemen Please! | Emergency Call | Cosh Boy | Johnny on the Run | Albert R.N. | The Sea Shall Not Have Them | The Good Die Young | Reach for the Sky | Cast a Dark Shadow | The Admirable Crichton | A Cry from the Streets | Carve Her Name with Pride | Ferry to Hong Kong |
| 1960s | Light Up the Sky! | Sink the Bismarck! | The Greengage Summer | H.M.S. Defiant | The 7th Dawn | Alfie |
| 1970s | The Adventurers | Friends | Paul and Michelle | Operation Daybreak | Seven Nights in Japan |
| 1980s | Educating Rita | Not Quite Paradise | Shirley Valentine |
| 1990s | Stepping Out | Haunted |
| 2000s | Before You Go |
