THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
SHIRLEY HURD'S slender hand is trembling as she lifts a cup of cappuccino to her lips.
She is sitting in her living room, talking about Friday and the opening of her one-woman show. She is contemplating more than 100 minutes alone on stage. Worrying about all those minutes. All those lines.
``I am inclined to get a little tense,'' she says, as her husband, seated across the room lets loose with a few whoops of laughter.
``Tense?'' chides Bentley Anderson. ``That's putting it mildly.''
They both laugh. Hurd casts an affectionate gaze her husband's way and shrugs.
``Well, I admit it,'' she says, her hand steadying somewhat. ``But Bentley's sense of humor and wit is a great help to me. He believes that whatever you're doing should be fun or you shouldn't be doing it.''
Hurd and Anderson say they are having fun undertaking something which would sorely test most marriages: he is directing her in the one-woman show, ``Shirley Valentine,'' opening tonight at the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach.
It's not their first collaboration. She's directed him, he's directed her, and they've acted together. In fact, they met in 1980 during a production of Tennessee Williams' ``Summer and Smoke'' in which they both had starring roles. Seven years and dozens of productions later, they married.
Anderson is a professor of theater communication at Virginia Wesleyan University and a well-known local thespian. Hurd is a prominent local actress and director and a graduate of Virginia Wesleyan.
They have acted in everything from Shakespeare to Neil Simon and agree that a one-person show is the ultimate challenge.
``Are you crazy?'' Anderson replies when asked if he might want to try going solo on stage.
Hurd has been learning lines since summer. Anderson's been designing the sets and working on the direction for months.
``It's a wonderful play'' says Hurd, holding several copies of the script protectively on her lap. ``A friend of mine in England sent me a copy of it years ago and look at the inscription.''
Scrawled in the front of the script is: ``Shirl, I'd love to see you in this.''
``Shirley Valentine'' is the story of a bored Liverpool woman named Shirley Bradshaw who spends her time talking to herself and the wall in her kitchen. Through her monologue she arrives at the self-awareness that inside this unfulfilled woman is Shirley Valentine, her adventurous alter ego.
Not only does Shirley Hurd have the right moniker for the role, she's a Liverpool native.
``The accent is easy for me,'' says the woman who normally speaks in a cultured British accent, but who easily lapses into the working class dialect made famous by the Beatles. ``There's a rhythm to a Liverpool accent. There's the way they end every sentence with a question, y'know, love?''
Hurd slips Shirley Valentine into her everyday conversations now, prefacing many statements with: ``As Shirley Valentine might say. . . ''
The actress says what first attracted her to the play was the way writer Willy Russell captures the heart, humor - and tongue - of a woman.
``It's hard to believe it was written by a man,'' says Hurd, shaking her head.
``It's because he was a hairdresser,'' observes Anderson. ``He knows how women talk and think.''
Anderson bristles at the suggestion that this show might have little appeal for men.
``It depends on what kind of man we're talking about,'' he says sternly. ``If we're talking about a `Shut up, I'm watching the game' kind of guy, well he might not like this. But any man who likes women, or who loves one in particular, will find `Shirley Valentine' funny and beautiful.''
Playwright Willy Russell is best known for ``Educating Rita'' and ``Blood Brothers.'' The latter is a Broadway hit, the former was a success on stage and was made into a movie starring Michael Caine.
In ``Shirley Valentine,'' Russell has created a memorable character. She's a middle-aged woman married to a dull, demanding man named Joe. During the first scene, when Shirley is talking to herself in her kitchen, she debates whether to accompany a feminist friend on a trip to the Greek Islands. And if that isn't enough to keep an actress busy, Russell has her cook an entire dinner during the scene.
``That's makes it so much harder,'' Hurd says. ``Not only do I have to know the lines, I'm also cooking eggs and chips and I've got to remember to do all the cooking properly in addition to remembering what Shirley is saying.''
The play ends with Shirley on a Greek holiday and it is not certain whether she will ever return to her husband.
Shirley Hurd thinks she knows what happens.
``I think, no, I hope, she goes back to Joe,'' says Hurd with a faraway look. ``Divorce is so awful, so heartbreaking. Even though I'm divorced and I couldn't be happier in this second marriage, I find the thought of divorce just tragic.
``And'' (as Shirley Valentine might say) ``when you are getting divorced you never know there will be a happy ending, do you?'' MEMO: Shirley Valentine opens tonight at the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach,
24th Street and Barberton Drive. 428-9233. Evening performances at 8,
Jan. 13, 14, 20 and 21. Matinees, 3 p.m. Jan. 15 & 22. Tickets $8,
senior citizens and students $6, matinees $6.
ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOT
In an undertaking that would sorely test most marriages, Bentley
Anderson is directing Shirley Hurd in " Shirley Valentine." Below, a
scene from the show.
Photo by D. Kevin Elliott
``Shirley Valentine,'' starring Shirley Hurd, opens Friday at the
Little Theatre of Virginia Beach.
by CNB