“Some people are dead a long time before they die” says Shirley deep into Act 2 of the one-hander “Shirley Valentine”, and she makes it clear that she doesn’t want to be one of them. That simple utterance captures almost everything you need to know about the play. The action focusses on the mundane life of housewife Shirley (who could almost be anyone) and her coming to realise that she is letting life slip away like a handful of sand through her fingers. She has become complacent and disillusioned with her life. She spends her days cooking for her husband and feeling invisible. So, she decides to swap her kitchen for the sundrenched and sandy beaches of a Greek island, without telling him! It’s a big step for Shirley, but with it she strides into a new and exciting future and swaps a slow ‘death’ for a life in a wilder lane full of surprises and new experiences.
One-handers are quite uncommon on the community theatre stage in Adelaide, as are two and three handers (although in the last six months however we have seen “Visiting Mr Green” – a two-hander– and “Di and Viv and Rose” – a three hander). One and two handers are much more common at Fringe time. Part of the folklore is that big casts pull bigger audiences, and conversely small casts have less box office appeal. Tea Tree Players have turned this on its head, as have the producers of the aforementioned other two plays. But TTP is quite a remarkable group. They exist on the very edge of the greater metropolitan area and it’s a long drive to get there from the near-inner suburbs. It takes this reviewer an hour to drive there and another to get home afterward. One might think this would lead to small houses, but it doesn’t – TTP regularly sell out their seasons, and their theatre is perhaps the best little theatre in Adelaide. One-handers also require competent and confident actors – after all, they can only rely on themselves. There ain’t anyone else!
“Shirley Valentine” delighted the nearly sold-out opening night audience. They laughed loudly and frequently, hung on every word, and even applauded the set for Act 2 where it had transformed from Shirley’s modest kitchen to a beach cove somewhere in the Greek islands with a richly and well painted backdrop (created by Damon Hill) of a shallow hillside dotted with white villas leading down to a beach and a jetty replete with a taverna.
At the interval, everyone in the audience was thinking and saying the same thing. How did Theresa “Lilly” Dolman manage to learn all those lines! For one-hundred minutes Dolman spoke to the audience as Shirley – the so-called fourth wall was well and truly shattered. Dolman was fluent and considered in everything she said. As Shirley, she demonstrates vulnerability, pluck, fear, excitement, doubt and daring. It’s all there, although it could be louder at times. (It’s a small theatre, but it doesn’t respond kindly to near whisper spoken on stage.)
Dolman brings all her ample experience to bear as she paints a carefully constructed picture of Shirley embarking on a solo journey of rediscovering herself and returning to the adventurous, confident woman she once was as she challenges and beaks social norms. Dolman knows what she is doing. Nothing is overdone, and she knows how to read and use an audience. Moments of sadness were exemplified through abject loneliness, and pure joy through a smile that fills the stage. Much of the audience, especially the women, allowed themselves to be putty in Dolman’s hands.
Director and set designer Robert Andrews clearly has a soft spot for “Shirley Valentine” and has done well to give Dolman just enough ‘stage business’ to convincingly carry the role. Mike Philips’ lighting design is particularly effective in Act 2 and uses a rich palette of colours and shading to evoke the romanticism of a Greek island.
TTP’s gamble with “Shirley Valentine” has paid off. This is a creditable production.
