THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501250181
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02B EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MARK DUROSE, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
For those interested in eavesdropping on the most intimate and uncensored thoughts and feelings of a mature woman searching for meaning in life, the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach had just the thing the last two weekends. And if the series of enthusiastic sold-out audiences was an indication, quite a few people were.
The play was Willy Russell's one-woman show, ``Shirley Valentine,'' and another Shirley, Shirley Hurd, rose to rare and sublime heights in community theater in the challenging role. Valentine, the title character, is an unsatisfied middle-age British housewife who finds herself, and happiness, as she leaves behind the doldrums of her unremarkable life in England for an unprecedented journey to Greece, a vacation from which she decides to never return.
The show was crisply directed by Hurd's husband, Bentley Anderson. Hurd, who like Valentine is from England, and Anderson are seasoned veterans of the Hampton Roads theater community, with much acclaim and several awards to their credit. When Hurd's daughter brought back a copy of this play from England more than two years ago, the couple became enamored of the project. When the rights became available for such a production recently, they eagerly joined forces to bring it to the Little Theatre stage.
Despite the inherent and usual drawbacks to doing a one-person show for such an audience, Hurd turned in a performance worthy of her character's proclamation late in Act II that she has become ``Shirley the Sensational.''
From the opening curtain to the final one, Hurd was magnetic and charismatic, commanding the audience's attention and trust.
In the wrong hands, this role could have become quite tiresome despite the compelling words of playwright Russell.
Nonetheless, Hurd did an admirable and satisfying job of varying tempo and intensity, from the intimate delivery lamenting the loss of love and romance in her marriage in Act I, to the beaming celebration of her sexual awakening in a land where they actually ``grow the grapes of the wine you're drinking.''
In addition, Anderson's stage directions were well-handled, with just the right amount of gesturing and stage business. The play ever got bogged down in unnecessary, and uninteresting, wordiness.
Recent attempts to divide theater and film into what is or isn't for ``chicks only'' could perhaps quickly slide this piece into the ``is'' category, but, in fact, this play is a very humanistic odyssey of self-awareness and liberation applicable far beyond questions of gender alone. That the play might speak loudly and clearly for an entire generation of women can't be ignored, either, and the insightful inclusion of a copy of Sylvia Plath's ``The Bell Jar'' into the otherwise unremarkable set design was not lost on this reviewer.
We watch Valentine transform from a thoroughly bored housewife, carrying on conversations with her only true confidante, the kitchen wall, discussing how ``frightened'' she has become ``of life beyond the wall,'' to a more youthful and vibrant woman sighing that she has finally ``fallen in love with the idea of living.'' We are swept along in her lust for freedom and fulfillment, the possibilities of our own lives expanding with each well-delivered scene.
The universal appeal of the finely crafted script was evident in the overwhelming response of the public. Though all involved were concerned that a one-person show might be a box office dud, quite the opposite was the case.
This show was one of the most successful ones produced at the Little Theatre in recent years, requiring the theater to offer additional performances, which also sold out.
In fact, Anderson, the director, is negotiating to bring the show back for a second run in the spring. The effort would be well-worth it as this production was, to use Valentine's words, ``double-fab.'' by CNB