The sun helps to depict her new up-lifting mood. One day Brian, his son, convinces Joe to go to Greece himself, in doing so he insults his father. With Shirley Valentine, Willy developed a new style of writing - the one woman show. But she does not feel satisfied because she is lonely. The sunny sandy beaches of Greece highlight her new found freedom, as the colours of sand and sun usually are linked to freedom and happiness.
Shirley Valentine is on at the Royal Court until May 9. She smiles at herself in the mirror. There is a quick transformation in these scenes. In Greece she is a completely difference person as she was in Liverpool and minor characters show us how. However, later on in the play Shirley is in Greece and the music is complete opposite to the opening credits. Checks the content of her passport.
This forms a friendship between Shirley and the audience. In this play Minor characters are very important and are used affectively. Even though Shirley is in Greece she is still lonely because Jane ran off with a man she met on the plane. Shirley found it easy to confront these two because she believes they do not appreciate life for what it is, and how good they really have things. We also understand her feelings towards her life through all her voiceovers. Whereas in contrast to Greece she was wearing brightly coloured, revealing clothes because she has regained her confidence now that she does not have Joe to oppress her and put her down.
What also makes this play different to other Kitchen Sink Dramas is that Willy Russell manages to keep Shirley as an independent character; these sorts of characters are not usually seen in Kitchen Sink Dramas. Another reason for why flashbacks and voiceovers are used because Russell wishes to introduce new characters as well as to tell the audience her thoughts and opinions on these characters, which are usually biased. The social historical context is also from Russell, Russell coming from a working class background and him being born in Liverpool which is where half the play was set. Shirley is worried about to go to Greece because she knows that Joe will think the obvious, she is going for the sex. As played by the incomparable Pauline Collins who created the role on Broadway, and won a Tony for it , Shirley embraces not only her own constricted life, but the dreams of the big, beautiful world beyond it. Russell leaves the audience with his views on society which are shown through the character Shirley.
She gains sympathy for her husband now that she has changed. The use of these unconventional twists makes the play different and more interesting to watch. The plays are socially and politically motivated, seeking to focus attention on the destruction of moral values caused by consumerism and the break down of community. The Head Mistress ignores her, and asks others; still no one gets it right. After being patronized for too long by Joe this scene shows how scared but also defiant she was of her husband. In this way the audience is able to learn more about Shirley as a person and know why she does what she does in a positive manner.
You could see that she is tired of living out her life in an ordinary marriage, with very little going on, she has all this Unfulfilled Potential which she desperately wants to overturn. Shirley embarks on a passionate affair with Costas, a local Greek man, and realizes that there is more to life than the dull, mundane existence she leads back home in Liverpool. The film opens with Shirley returning from her regular, daily shopping trip from the shops, which fits, into part of her daily, reoccurring life. This couple think she is lonely and are obnoxious. Shirley's a middle-aged Liverpool housewife, who finds herself talking to the wall while she prepares her husband's chips 'n' egg, wondering what happened to her life.
With the minor characters we see how Shirley acts in certain situations and we are able to understand her better. Shirley also mentions that the woman three doors down talks to her microwave, this shows she is witty and slightly confident. Throughout the beginning of the play there are no major sound effects. From these two quotes we are able to see how the respect they had for each other has been misplaced and may never be found again. In Greece Shirley meets a Greek man called Costas. She also explains what good it would do for Joe if he stayed with her in Mykonos. When Shirley sees Marjorie after many years, we see that elocution is focused on.
We see Shirley and Joe in 1965, when they are newly married. The flashback of Shirley in her school days shows us when Shirley becomes more rebellious. Costas shows kindness to Shirley, so she decides to go. As she goes into the kitchen to put her bags away, she leans her back and head against the door and sighs, this goes to illustrate her boredom and exhaustion of what she does for a living. She looks at herself in the mirror Not bad, not bad. This is to show that everything she has been missing out on is finally coming to her and has to all be crammed in.
It went onto Broadway during 1990, marking Willy Russell's Broadway debut. They tell the everyday life story of a woman that has - Dramatic Devices in Willy Russell's Shirley Valentine Willy Russell uses many different dramatic devices to explore the issues and themes of the play 'Shirley Valentine'. Peters, for example, being small, thin, and soft-spoken, did not strike Martha Hale as a sheriff's wife when they first met; however, Mrs. The relationship Shirley has with the minor characters is very different. So the decline of their marriage is easily traceable through the flashbacks and the present time. Shirley tells Millandra that she is going to Greece with Jane but Millandra thinks stereotypically, Shirley is going to Greece for the sex.