Entertainment

Shirley Valentine at The Drama Factory

Staff Reporter|Published

Natasha Sutherland plays Shirley Valentine.

Natasha Sutherland plays Shirley Valentine.

Natasha Sutherland plays Shirley Valentine in the award-winning British one-woman play by Willy Russell, which will be performed at The Drama Factory from Thursday March 10 to Sunday March 13.

Shirley is a bored, middle-aged housewife, trapped in a stale, loveless marriage. Her children are all grown up and she frequently talks to the wall in her kitchen while preparing her husband's regular evening meal of egg and chips.

Shirley feels stuck in a rut and finds solace in her daily glass of wine as she muses over the lack of excitement in her life.

When her best friend asks her to go to Greece with her for two weeks, Shirley jumps at the chance with a mix of exhilaration and jittery nerves.

Leaving a note for her husband that simply reads "Gone to Greece - Back in two weeks", Shirley leaves for her holiday. While relaxing on holiday, she rediscovers the woman she used to be and the happiness that she has been missing.

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. Making a radical decision, she leaves her friend at the airport and goes back to the hotel she has been staying at to ask for a job.

Finally, she is living the life she has dreamed of and rediscovered the self-confidence she has lost.

Shows are at 7.30pm, with a matinee on Saturday March 12, at 3.30pm, and on Sunday March 13, at 4pm.

Tickets cost R160 / R140, and can be booked at www.thedramafactory.co.za/show/JVT202202

For more information, call 073 215 2290.