Review | Sally Reid’s Shirley Valentine is simply mesmeric; thought-provoking, bittersweet and deeply moving
Shirley Valentine, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
There’s a line in a song somewhere, about a mother, gazing out the window after her children have all left home, lost deep in thought, a momentary sadness etched onto her features before she is pulled back into the reality of her life and the demands that continue to be made of her by default of being a mother, of a wife, a carer.
It’s a look that will be familiar to many. One that speaks of sacrificed dreams and opportunities and of what might have been of a life lived, yet not quite fulfilled.
In Willy Russell’s shrewdly observed Shirley Valentine, his exploration of the reflection that comes with middle-age proves as powerful today as it was when it first appeared on stage nearly 40 years ago, but while Russell’s words provide the foundations of this production from Pitlochry Festival Theatre, it’s Sally Reid’s incredible empathy for the character that makes her Shirley Valentine shine brighter than the Greek sun of which she dreams.
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